Chapter 10: The Whisper That Betrays
The dream returned.
Not a place. Not a sound.
A sensation.
Weightless falling through blood-colored fog.
Eyes—too many, too few—opened and closed across the ceiling of his mind. A woman made of knives offered him a tongue made of ink. A door opened in his chest, and the wind whispered—
"What you see is not what is."
Kairis woke in a cold sweat.
Velradis slept uneasily around him—its lights dimmed, its windows shuttered. Arith snored quietly in the next room. The old woman who housed them hadn't spoken to him since the first night.
He rose.
Stepped out into the corridor.
Something was calling him.
Not the Eye. Not power.
A voice.
Alive.
Nearby.
He stepped into the courtyard.
The wind had returned.
It whispered through broken tiles, tugged at banners long faded.
And at the far end of the courtyard, standing beneath a crumbled arch, was a boy.
No older than ten. Skin pale as paper. Eyes black, not with color—but with ink.
He smiled.
Kairis froze.
"You're dreaming," the boy said, though the air was cold and real.
"You're not here."
"I am. Just not fully."
"Who sent you?"
The boy tilted his head. "Does it matter?"
"Yes."
"The Choir, then."
Kairis tensed.
"I'm not interested in their worship."
The boy took a step forward. "No. But you're interested in truth."
Silence.
The wind stilled.
The boy's voice dropped.
"You think the Eye was sealed to protect the world from it."
Kairis nodded.
"It wasn't."
Another step.
"It was sealed to protect the world from what it shows."
Kairis's breath caught.
"What do you mean?"
"You've only opened the first layer. Tasted the edge. Scripture shaped your skin. But the Eye doesn't just burn."
The boy smiled.
"It reveals."
Reveals what?
The boy gestured upward.
"To the stars? To gods? No. To the lies beneath you. The truth of this world. Of your people. Of the cities that raised you. Of the gods that fled."
Kairis's voice was quiet.
"And what is the truth?"
The boy stepped forward until they were eye to eye.
"There's no prophecy," he whispered.
"No fate. No hero. No villain. No redemption."
"There is only what you choose to see. And once you see too much—it will see you back."
He vanished.
Not in light. Not in smoke.
Just… gone.
As if Kairis had never looked at him at all.
Kairis didn't return to sleep.
He sat beneath the empty sky until the sun broke grey across the towers.
Arith found him with dark rings beneath her eyes.
"You're awake early."
"I didn't sleep."
"You dreamt."
He nodded.
She sat beside him.
"Want to talk?"
Kairis looked at the horizon.
"The Eye wasn't sealed to lock it away."
She frowned.
He continued.
"It was sealed to protect us from what it shows."
Arith was quiet for a long time.
Then, softly:
"That's worse."
They left Velradis before the midday bells.
The guards didn't stop them.
But the whispers followed them out of the gates like smoke that refused to vanish.