Starborn silence

Somewhere beneath the village of Kanah, in a chamber carved from ancient stone and forgotten bones...

German Sparow stood still, his hands dipped into the icy water of a black basin.

Reflections danced—fragments of time, memory, and pain.

> A woman screaming as her home burned.

A child, clutching a knife too large for his hands.

A voice, gentle yet firm:

"Feel nothing, German. The world punishes weakness."

He didn't flinch. Not anymore.

---

Above, Sunny wandered through the cold corridors of the well-hidden tunnels.

Every room whispered old truths—lives once lived and violently ended.

But there was something new now.

He could feel the world bending.

Not like dreams or illusions.

Something deeper.

The shadows leaned toward him.

The air obeyed him.

Even the silence paused when he raised his head.

> "This village isn't trying to kill me," Sunny whispered.

"It's… measuring me."

---

Below, German traced a line through dust with a thin silver blade.

He spoke softly—perhaps to himself, perhaps to something else.

> "Everyone breaks eventually. Even him. Especially him."

"The ones who claim control are the ones who fear losing it most."

"And I… I will give him the choice no one gave me."

He turned to a hooded figure in the corner.

> "Has he remembered?"

"Not yet," the figure replied.

> "Good," German said. "Let pain be the ink. Let truth write him again."

---

Sunny reached a small altar at the end of the tunnel.

On it, a carving. Familiar. A symbol like a sun swallowed by thorns.

The same one from his first nightmare.

From the dream of Ren.

And now again, here, in Kanah.

Something was connecting them.

A thread he couldn't see, but felt tightening around him.

His head throbbed.

Another flash—

> Ren. Standing at a cliff. Screaming someone's name.

A fire. A silver-eyed boy walking away.

Sunny gasped. He staggered back.

> "That boy… was German," he whispered.

---

Up above, Kanah's skies turned crimson for just a moment.

The eclipse was beginning.

And German?

He was smiling.

> "Come find me, Sunny. I've already seen who you'll become."