The Harmonization Hall dimmed as evening settled over Sel'Anora. The light inside the chamber softened into slow, deep pulses—each one in rhythm with the roots beneath the wooden floor. The walls breathed. The moss cradling the hybrid breathed. Even the vines curled around the hall seemed to shift with each low note humming from the resonance stones.
Aeri sat beside him, her glow resting close to his cheek plating.
He had not spoken since the last tremor.
He didn't need to.
His optic told her everything.
Fragile.
Afraid.
Listening.
She watched the rise and fall of his vent cycles, each one a strained whisper from damaged plating.
"You're okay," she murmured.
Her glow softened into steady blue, carrying reassurance into the air between them.
"You're okay… we're here."
He blinked once—slow, weak.
He did not understand her words.
But he understood her glow.
He always understood her glow.
Selora entered from the outer chamber, her steps quiet, her deep gold-blue glow dimmer than earlier. She carried the weight of the village on her shoulders—Aeri sensed it in the way the elder's glow flickered at the edges.
"It's quiet," Aeri whispered without looking up. "Too quiet."
Selora hummed softly in agreement.
"The forest is holding its breath."
A painful truth.
Selora knelt beside the moss cradle, palms lowering just above the hybrid's chest-node.
The hall's harmonics responded instantly: the root-lines brightened, the resonance thickened, and the moss under him shifted to accommodate the elder's influence.
Selora's tone was low and controlled.
"How is he?"
Aeri hesitated. Her glow fluttered.
"Still tired. Still… listening."
Selora nodded. "That is expected."
Aeri frowned faintly. "But he keeps listening even when he tries to rest."
Selora's glow darkened. "Because something is calling him."
Aeri's eyes widened. "Calling?"
The floor trembled—barely a whisper, not enough to shake dust loose, but enough that both women felt it. Aeri's glow snapped violet.
The hybrid's optic flickered sharply.
He sensed it too.
Selora closed her eyes. "The tremor, again. Weak, but intentional."
Seven's internal sensors surged.
CO2L // PASSIVE SCAN
External Vibration: Detected
Pattern: Fragmented
Origin: Distant
Threat Level: Low–Moderate
He blinked, confused.
The vibration wasn't a sound.
Not quite resonance.
Not quite corruption.
More like… something missing.
Aeri leaned closer, glow trembling.
"What is it? Are you in pain? Is it the tremor?"
He blinked twice—slow, uneven.
He wasn't in pain.
He was listening.
Aeri tried to steady herself. Her glow softened back to blue.
"You don't have to answer," she whispered. "Just stay calm. Please stay calm."
He blinked again—once.
Aeri exhaled shakily.
Selora rose slowly, pressing her palm to one of the root-lines at the base of the wall. The wood pulsed under her touch, deep and resonant.
"The corruption cluster in the eastern ridge is… shifting."
Aeri tensed. "Closer?"
"No. But aware."
The hybrid turned his optic toward Selora's glow. Her voice was calm, but her glow told the truth: blue laced with troubled gold. Worry. Uncertainty.
He processed the glow-pattern.
Saved it.
Another faint tremor rippled under the hall.
He scanned again.
CO2L // PASSIVE SCAN
Corruption Signature: Stable
Movement: None
Anomalous Pulse: Detected
Classification: Unknown
Unknown.
His logs flagged it twice.
Aeri reached for him instinctively—hands hovering near his cheek, glow rising in a soft flare.
"Sha… sha norin… calm light… calm light…"
Her glow-language soothed him instantly.
His optic softened.
His internal noise quieted.
Selora watched both of them, her glow tightening in contemplation.
"He responds beyond intuition," the elder murmured. "As if he's trying to mirror you."
Aeri flushed gold. "I'm just trying to help him breathe."
Selora offered a faint hum. "Your glow is strong. Whether you intend it or not, he follows you."
Aeri opened her mouth to deny it—but stopped.
Seven lifted his hand.
Barely. Trembling.
A tiny motion…
Toward her glow.
Aeri's breath caught.
"No—don't move. You're going to hurt yourself."
Her glow grew stronger—warm gold at the edges. "Just… stay. I'm right here."
He allowed his hand to fall back.
The motion had cost him greatly—pain signals rippled through him.
Aeri whispered, "Good… good…"
Her glow brushed his cheek again.
Seven's vent-cycle steadied.
Selora watched them silently.
And Aeri knew the elder was noticing patterns she didn't yet understand.
The hall dimmed further.
Night cycles in Sel'Anora often came slowly, but tonight the shadows seemed heavier.
Lira entered quietly. "Outer resonance lines reinforced. Corruption pulse is steady, Elder."
Selora nodded. "Good."
Lira's lilac glow softened when she saw Aeri. "You're still here?"
"I'm not leaving him," Aeri whispered.
Seven blinked.
He understood that tone.
Aeri's glow brightened with warmth.
Lira smiled faintly. "He stabilizes better with you anyway."
Aeri flushed gold. "I'm not doing anything."
"You're doing more than you realize," Lira said softly.
Seven processed these shifts without understanding the words.
But he understood the warmth in Aeri's glow.
He understood the steadiness she gave him.
Another tremor.
Stronger than before.
Aeri gasped.
Selora turned sharply, pressing her palm to the root-wall again.
Seven froze.
The tremor carried a sound—not through his ears, but through his hybrid structure.
A gap. A missing tone.
A silence so deep it created its own presence.
Aeri felt it too—her glow dimmed into pale violet.
"What was that?" she whispered.
Selora didn't answer for a moment.
Then: "Not corruption."
Aeri's fear spiked. "Then what?"
Selora shook her head slowly.
"I don't know."
Seven's optic widened.
He scanned again, but the tremor faded too quickly.
CO2L // PASSIVE SCAN
Anomalous Pulse: Intermittent
Pattern: Silence-pattern resonance
Interpretation: Not enough data
Not enough data.
He blinked rapidly—three times, a sign of distress.
Aeri leaned over him, glow thickening with gold-blue.
"Hey—hey… look at me. Look at me."
He did.
Her glow filled his field of vision.
Soft. Warm. Steady.
His optic slowed.
His tremors eased.
Aeri exhaled in relief.
"There you go… don't listen to that. Don't follow it."
He didn't understand the words.
But he understood the emotion behind them.
And he clung to her glow.
Selora stepped back from the wall. "Whatever that was—it wasn't directed at us."
Aeri swallowed. "But he felt it."
"Yes. Because his core resonates where ours don't."
Aeri's glow trembled. "Is that dangerous?"
Selora didn't answer immediately.
Her glow dimmed into a deep, heavy blue.
"It could be."
Seven blinked, unsure why Aeri's glow dimmed with fear.
He tried to lift his hand again.
Tap.
Aeri leaned closer. "I'm here."
He blinked once—slow, tired.
Aeri kept her glow near him.
"Rest," she whispered.
He wanted to.
He allowed his optic to dim again.
The hall remained quiet, but the roots beneath them hummed—just faintly—with an unease that had not been there before.
Aeri never moved away.
Selora watched the hybrid carefully, her eyes narrowing.
"This isn't corruption," Selora murmured. "This is something else entirely."
Aeri's glow dimmed.
"What?"
Selora's answer was a whisper.
"A whisper of the Silence. Something old."
Seven stirred in his half-resting state.
Aeri's hand hovered instantly near his cheek.
"Don't listen to it," she whispered. "Stay with us. Please."
He blinked once.
And the hall trembled—once, faintly.
Selora looked toward the eastern roots.
"It isn't coming for us."
Her glow thinned.
"Not yet. But the forest is warning us."
Aeri swallowed.
Seven's optic flickered weakly.
He was listening.
Not to Selora.
Not to the hall.
To something else.
Something faint.
Something distant.
A silence so deep it felt like pressure.
Aeri saw his optic narrow.
She leaned close, glow rising.
"Don't follow it."
Her glow filled his world again.
Warm.
Blue.
Safe.
He let out a soft, static breath.
His optic dimmed.
He stayed.
The hall hummed low, as if exhaling with him.
Aeri whispered once more, glow trembling:
"We're here."
He saved that glow.
And the tremor faded into stillness—
—for now.