The wasteland had no sound at sunrise. The wind carried only dust and the faint memory of cities long dead. Broken towers poked through the cracked earth like black teeth. Nothing moved except a lone figure walking slowly toward a cluster of metal shacks.Serra.Her steps were stiff. Her right arm, the one she had replaced during the war, twitched every few seconds as if something inside it wanted to wake. She lifted her cloak higher around her face and tried to steady her breath. She had not slept in three days.Every time she closed her eyes she heard the voices again, whispering inside her blood.She reached the camp. It was small, no more than seven people living among old crates, burnt-out machines, and scraps of broken walls. The people froze when they saw her silhouette. They whispered among themselves.“That’s her.”“General Serra.”“The one who fired the EMP.”“She killed thousands.”Serra ignored the whispers. She always ignored them. She walked past the rusted fences and

New Crest should have felt alive. The sky was blue again. The towers hummed softly in the distance. Children ran in the open streets without flinching at the sound of every little breeze. But beneath all of that peace was something deeper and colder, something that moved silently between people. Fear. Fear of the red tower. Fear of the Breath-Born. Fear of Jonah.It began with whispers, tiny fragments of conversations that drifted from homes and market tents and broken balconies.“He is not the same anymore.”“The blue light changed him.”“Maybe the red tower is the safer one.”“At least it speaks clearly.”Then the whispers grew teeth. By morning, half the city had chosen a side. Lisa felt the tension the moment she stepped into the central square. People stood in two groups divided by a long crack in the ground, as if the earth itself had split to show them how far apart they had grown. Some held blue lanterns carved from scraps of tower dust. Others clutched red ribbons tied ar

Kevin woke before the sun rose. The sky was still dark and blue, and the air felt colder than usual. He sat up on his small sleeping mat and listened. The city was quiet, but not the normal kind of quiet. It was the heavy kind, the kind that made the world feel like it was holding its breath.The faint hum of the towers drifted through the walls. It was soft, almost gentle, but Kevin felt the second tone beneath it, a hidden echo that did not belong to the Breath-Born. It pulsed slow and hungry, like a heart waiting for something to break.Kevin rubbed his hands together and looked toward the sphere resting on the table across the room. It was silent now. Echo was gone. It had faded into dust days ago, leaving only a faint ring of blue powder behind. Kevin had swept it into a jar. He kept it close even though it hurt to look at it.He whispered to the empty room, “I remembered you. I keep remembering.”The wind outside whispered back, brushing against the window.Kevin stood slowly

Jonah felt the world trembling long before anyone else noticed. It started as a faint shiver under his skin, like a cold hand brushing along his spine. Then the air changed. The hum of the Breath-Born lost its softness. It turned heavy, slow, and full of things that should not be remembered.He stood on one of the city’s high bridges, looking toward the east where the red horizon pulsed like a quiet heartbeat. The sky there moved in a strange rhythm, rising and falling with sound that was not sound. It made him feel sick, but he did not step away.Behind him, three Breath-Born hovered, their pale shapes flickering with worry. They whispered to one another in thin glowing streams, but Jonah understood them without needing translation.“The red song grows.”“The humans sleep standing.”“The memories play.”Jonah closed his eyes. He felt the weight of it all pressing on him like a storm. He whispered, “It is not a song. It is a trap.”The Breath-Born dimmed at his words, as if the trut

Dawn broke with a strange color. It was not blue. It was not red. It was something mixed between them, like two storms trying to claim the same sky. New Crest lay quiet beneath that strange light, the towers humming in soft unease, and not a single bird dared to fly.Jonah felt the shift first. He stood on the balcony of the council hall, gripping the railing as his breath grew tight. His veins glowed faint gold beneath his skin, pulsing in slow waves that matched the rhythm of the Breath-Born. The glow in his right eye flickered weakly, like a candle fighting wind.Lisa was gone. The world felt heavier without her. He closed his eyes. The hum in the distance trembled. Something was coming.A voice in the back of his mind whispered like a faint echo. “She walks with both lights now.” He opened his eyes sharply. “Serra.”Jonah turned toward the east where the wasteland stretched like cracked bone. Dust rolled across the horizon.Beneath the dust, silhouettes began to rise, many of th