"THE LOUDER QUIET"
Morning did not arrive all at once.
It crawled.
Light seeped into Solara HQ through fractured glass and temporary seals, touching surfaces without warming them. The halls felt reluctant to accept the day, as if the building itself remembered what had moved through it and wasn't convinced it had truly left.
There were fewer people.
Less noise.
Every shadow carried weight now, no longer empty space but a question.
At the café, construction crews worked without pause. Tools buzzed and sparked, bodies moving with practiced urgency. They swarmed the ruined space like bees in a damaged hive—instinctively repairing, rebuilding, refusing to let the structure stay broken. Tables were replaced. Counters reforged. No one lingered longer than necessary.
Life was trying.
In the Solara gardens, the bodies had been laid out with care.
By the end of the morning, the count was final.
Thirty-seven.
Gone.
No wounds. No blood. Just absence where something essential had been taken. Soldiers stood quietly among the rows, helmets tucked under arms, eyes lowered. No speeches were given. No prayers spoken aloud.
Jax and Thane barely slept.
They worked through the night and into the morning, isolating data streams, replaying sensor logs, tracing the strange, stuttering signature Khelos had left behind. Every flicker of interference was logged, compared, cross-referenced.
They weren't trying to understand it.
They were trying to see it before it arrived next time.
In medical, the lights never dimmed.
Paper littered the floor—notes, discarded diagrams, failed projections. Weaver stood at the center of it all, threads moving constantly, probing, retracting, searching for answers that refused to exist. Nina worked beside him, running scans that told her everything and nothing at once.
Rose sat near Allium's bed.
She hadn't moved much.
Weaver finally broke the silence.
"I'm not giving up."
His voice was steady, but there was an edge beneath it—something sharp and close to fear.
"Perhaps," he continued, "I could return him to the Temple of Stillness. Maybe… maybe I could fix him there."
Nina looked up from her tablet.
"Why would it be better?" she asked, not challenging—just honest.
Weaver turned to her.
"I'm out of options," he said quietly. "I don't want him to die."
Rose inhaled sharply.
Her breath caught.
They all turned.
Allium's hand was raised.
Not reaching—just lifted, fingers relaxed, palm open toward the ceiling. His eyes were open now, unfocused but present, fixed on something none of them could see.
They moved instantly.
Weaver was at his side first.
"Allium? Allium…?"
Allium turned his head slightly.
A small voice escaped him.
"Hi…"
Nina was already checking his pulse, stabilizers adjusting around her hands as she worked from instinct rather than understanding. His vitals fluttered, then steadied—fragile, but there.
Allium spoke again, gaze still upward.
"They're louder…"
Weaver glanced at the ceiling, then back to him.
"What is louder, Allium?"
Allium's eyes shifted toward the window.
Virel hung in the sky beyond it—blue, distant, watching.
"The suns…"
He tried to sit up.
Rose moved immediately, bracing him, one arm around his shoulders.
"Allium, you need to rest."
He didn't look at her.
Didn't seem to hear the concern in her voice.
He rose anyway, pain rippling through him with every motion. Rose couldn't stop him—but she didn't let him fall, guiding him step by careful step toward the window.
"I pull from the Trees," he said slowly, as if organizing thoughts through fog. "But Nexon is being held by Kyros and Varos. They haven't held the suns…"
Weaver approached carefully, every instinct screaming at him to sit Allium back down.
"Allium… what are you saying?"
Allium turned his head at last.
"I never pulled only from the Trees," he said. "They're echoes. Reflections. Not the source."
Weaver's breath caught.
He saw it immediately.
"Allium—"
Allium cut him off.
"If you say it will kill me—this is a chance. If I die not trying versus trying and still dying… I would die happily."
His knees buckled.
Energy drained from him in visible waves as he sagged.
Weaver's colors dulled as he caught him.
"I don't know how to connect you to them," he admitted, voice breaking. "I don't know how."
Allium's voice came weak but certain.
"You must try. Or you don't try—and I die for certain."
Rose looked between them, mind racing.
"What if…" she began, then stopped. Thought again.
"Is there a way to help from my end?"
Before Weaver could answer, Allium did.
"You can help stabilize," he said. "But not like this."
Rose tightened her grip on him.
"What are you saying?"
Allium sank to the floor, breathing harsh and uneven.
Weaver intervened, threads lifting gently, guiding him back toward the bed.
"He needs to lie down. You're losing too much energy."
Allium shook his head, eyes fixed on Rose.
"There is a way," he said. "I think… I can help you. Turn you pure."
Rose frowned.
"You mean… free of hunger?"
Allium nodded faintly.
"I think. I don't know. No Seraphim has ever tried it."
Weaver eased Allium back onto the bed.
"He's speaking of the Tree of Virel," he said quietly. "The Dream Root."
Rose nodded once.
"I've heard of it. How would it help me?"
"Virel can shape dreams," Weaver explained. "Identity. It can cleanse a soul of corruption entirely." He hesitated. "They call it a trial. But if you fail… it dissolves the person completely. It's not a chance. It's considered impossible."
Rose didn't hesitate.
"I'm not going to repeat what Allium said," she replied evenly. "This is a chance. I want to take it."
They were so focused they didn't notice Cassidy, Jax, and Thane enter.
Cassidy spoke first.
"I think it's worth a shot."
Weaver turned to her sharply.
"This could kill Rose if she fails."
Cassidy didn't flinch.
"You said a person. She's not simply a person—or a Seraphim. She's never eaten a soul."
Weaver exhaled slowly.
"That's true. But it's still a gamble."
Rose met his eyes.
"It's my gamble," she said. "And honestly… I don't know how much longer I can last, Weaver."
The room went still.
Weaver looked down, defeat settling heavy on his shoulders.
"It is your choice," he said at last. "But don't say I didn't warn you."
Rose turned back to Allium.
He was unconscious again.
Still breathing.
Still here.
For now.
END EPISODE 15 — "THE LOUDER QUIET"