By morning, people were already forgetting.
Sera waved when she saw him at the square, but her smile faltered.
"You look familiar," she said, "did we… meet before?"
Cael stared. "You're kidding."
"Maybe I'm just tired." She laughed, but it sounded forced.
She showed him her sketchbook—blank pages.
"The drawings from yesterday vanished. The whole book's clean."
He took it gently, running his thumb across the page. It was smooth—too smooth, like glass.
"Maybe the Order's filters reached your house," he muttered.
"They've been setting up Wipe Emitters along the square."
She blinked. "You actually believe that nonsense?"
He didn't answer. The mark on his chest pulsed again—three beats, steady, alive.
---
Later, he found Aunt Mara standing by their door, a pale tag nailed above it:
> PROPERTY OF THE ORDER – UNDER PURIFICATION
Her face was unreadable.
"They said we'll be moved," she whispered. "Temporary relocation until the zone stabilizes."
"Zone?"
She gestured toward the town center.
The fog was back—but it wasn't fog anymore. It shimmered faintly, like heat above stone.
Within it, people walked slower, their steps echoing half a second late.
The Order called it The Pale Sleep.
Locals had another name for it—"The Forgetting Field."
---
That night, as the humming returned, Cael tried to write down everything:
the color of the fog, Sera's laugh, Mara's hands, Rann's voice.
But when he looked again, the ink was gone.
Only one word stayed on the page.
A word he didn't remember writing:
> "Rememberer."
---
The next morning, Rann came back with an escort.
The Reset was starting.
"You'll sleep soon, Cael," he said quietly.
"Don't fight it. You'll thank us later."
Cael's mark flared. The sound that followed wasn't human—it was resonance, pure and bright, vibrating through the air like a bell.
And somewhere behind Rann's calm eyes, for the first time, there was fear.
---
End of chapter 7
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