Volume 4: Nuisance of Fate
Side Story 6: The Silent Symphony (Pete's Backstory. Peter slecvoy Vesper's side story)
The Curse of the World's Ear
The Clan of Vesper was legendary among the high nobility. They were not Oracles who saw visions; they were the "Ears of the Goddess." They could hear the Voice of the World—the literal vibrations of fate, weather, and mana. Because they could "hear" where gold was buried or when an enemy army was marching ten miles away, the nobles treated them like prized caged birds.
Pete was born into the main branch, but he was a "broken" vessel. While his parents and siblings could focus on the melodious whispers of the Goddess, Pete heard everything else. He heard the tectonic plates grinding; he heard the scream of trees being cut; he heard the vibration of the very air.
To him, the world wasn't a symphony; it was a cacophony of agony.
"The boy is a failure," his father would say, looking at Pete huddled in a corner with his hands over his ears. "He hears the noise, but he is deaf to the Voice."
At twelve years old, Pete heard a new sound. It wasn't the Goddess, and it wasn't the earth. It was a low, vibrating hum—a sound like a clock ticking toward zero. It was the sound of an ending.
"It's coming!" Pete had screamed in the Great Hall. "A shadow is humming! Everything is going to stop!"
His family laughed. They listened to the "Voice" and heard only peace and prosperity. They called him mad and locked him in a soundproof cellar to "cure" his delusions. Pete realized then that the "Voice" his family worshipped had become a lie—or perhaps, it was a trap.
In a fit of panic and overstimulation, Pete broke out of the cellar and ran. He ran until his feet bled, eventually finding the quietest place he could find: the damp, muffled sewers of the Borderlands.
For years, Pete lived as a "cowardly" utility mage with the Asher Hawks. He hid behind Brag's shield because Brag's heartbeat was the only steady rhythm he could trust.
Two years before they met Rowan, Pete finally gathered the courage to go home. He wanted to tell his father he was sorry. He wanted to see if the "humming" had stopped.
But when he reached the Vesper Estate, there was no music. There was no humming. There was only the silence of the grave.
The manor was a blackened husk. A passing traveler stopped to look at the weeping boy. "Looking for the Vespers? Waste of time, kid. They were wiped out two years after the 'Prodigal Son' ran away. Some say the nobles got greedy and tried to force a secret out of them; others say they heard something they weren't supposed to hear, and the world simply... silenced them."
Pete realized with a jolt of horror: he had run away two years before the end. If he had stayed, he would be a corpse. If he had stayed, maybe he could have warned them.
When the Hawks encountered Rowan in the Iron-Leaf Forest, the rest of the party was focused on the fight. But Pete was focused on the silence.
"He's here," Pete whispered, ducking behind a tree.
"Who?" Ren asked, his bow drawn.
"The one without a song," Pete replied, his eyes wide.
To Pete's ears, every living thing has a "hum" of mana. Even the Earth-Drake sounded like a rumbling engine. But Rowan? Rowan was a Zero-Point. He was the only thing in the world that was truly quiet.
When Rowan joined the Hawks, Pete became his shadow. Not because he was brave, but because standing next to the "Black Wraith" was like being in a soundproof room.
"Rowan," Pete whispered one night while they were camping. "The world is humming again. Louder than before. I can't tell when the clock hits zero... but I know you're the only one who doesn't have a part in the song."
Rowan looked at the trembling mage, then at his own mechanical arm. "Then we'll just have to break the instruments, won't we?"
To be continued. End of Asher Hawks story