Armed with the toxic knowledge of the archives, Yohan felt a chasm open between himself and his colleagues.
He saw them in the headquarters, discussing the hunt for the Rogue Harmonizer with grim determination, and he felt a profound sense of alienation.
They were chasing a shadow, a convenient fiction, while the real monster, the historical truth, was being deliberately ignored.
He knew he had to confront Silas, and It was a terrifying prospect.
To question the Lead Harmonizer, the hero of the Psychic Squall, the man who was the living embodiment of their order, was an act of supreme insubordination, and It could end his career, even worse It could see him branded as a sympathizer with the very rogue he was supposed to be hunting and labelled as traitor.
He found Silas not in his office, but in the Solarium, a circular, glass domed room at the very top of the headquarters. It was a place for meditation.
The dome was enchanted to show a perfect, star filled night sky, no matter the time of day. It was meant to be a reminder of the vast, orderly cosmos, a source of calm and perspective.
Silas was standing in the center of the room, staring up at the artificial stars, his hands clasped behind his back, and he looked weary, the weight of the city on his shoulders.
"You have a question, Yohan" Silas said, without turning around with his psychic senses were as sharp as ever. " I can feel it burning in your mind. You are a poor liar"
Yohan's carefully prepared, diplomatic opening evaporated. He was left with the raw, angry truth. " I have been in the historical archives"
He said, with his voice tight. "I have been reading about the Psychic Squall, the Silent Collapse, and the founding years.
Silas turned slowly, with his face unreadable, wearing a mask of calm authority.
But Yohan could see a flicker of something in his eyes, not surprise, but a kind of weary resignation, as if he had been expecting this conversation for a long time. The archives are there for a reason, and that to learn from the past.
"What is there to learn from a book with half the pages ripped out"
Yohan shot back, with his voice risin " the redactions, Silas. Entire sections of our history are gone, and the field reports that contradict the official narrative, discussions of phenomena that are happening right now, all blacked out.
Why? What are you hiding?"
Silas's expression hardened. "What I am doing, Yohan, is protecting this city, and that is my only concern"
'By lying to us, and feeding us this story about a Rogue Harmonizer when you know, you must know, that this is something else. Something that has happened before," Yohan stepped forward, his hands clenched into fists.
" The reports from the Squall mentioned geometric distortions, auditory phantoms. They were describing Echoes and Whispering Shadows, sixty years ago. You did not just stop the Squall, but you covered it up. You and the founders, you have been covering something up from the very beginning."
For a long moment, Silas was silent. The artificial stars wheeled slowly overhead. The air in the room was thick with tension.
Yohan expected anger, a furious denial. Instead, Silas's shoulders slumped, a barely perceptible movement, but it was a crack in his granite facade.
"You are clever" Silas said, his voice low and tired. " But you are reckless.A dangerous combination"
He walked over to the glass wall, looking down at the city spread out below. " You speak of truth as if it were a simple, benevolent thing, as if it is a medicine that will heal all wounds. Some truths are poisons, Yohan, and some knowledge is a cancer. It serves no purpose but to destroy the mind that holds it."
"The people of this city deserve the truth," Yohan insisted.
"The people of this city deserve to exist," Silas retorted, his voice suddenly sharp as glass.
He turned back to Yohan, his eyes blazing with a cold fire. " They deserve to wake up in a world that is solid, to love their families, to live their lives without being confronted by the howling abyss that lies just beneath the surface of their reality. That is the peace I provide.
That is the peace our order is sworn to protect.
And I will protect it, even if it means I have to build it on a foundation of necessary lies"
His words were a confession, a confirmation of everything Yohan suspected. But they were delivered with such absolute, unwavering conviction that they were also a warning.
"There are principles" , Silas continued, his voice dropping again, " foundational principles upon which this entire world is built. They are delicate, and paradoxical, and to question them, to even look at them too closely, is to risk their collapse.
The information I have redacted is not history, Yohan. It is a loaded gun pointed at the head of the world. I am not hiding it. I am disarming it."
He took a step towards Yohan, his presence immense, his psychic authority a palpable force. "You are a good Harmonizer, and you have a talent, a gift. Do not throw it away by digging into things you cannot possibly comprehend. The enemy is the Rogue. Focus on the enemy, protect the city, and do your job. That is all I ask."
It was a command, not a request. A clear, unambiguous order to stop. To turn back from the path he was on.
" And if I do not" Yohan asked, his voice barely a whisper.
Silas's expression became one of profound sadness. " Then you will become a threat to the Consensus, and I will do whatever is necessary to neutralize that threat. Do not make me choose between you and this city, Yohan. Because I will not choose you"
The threat was unmistakable. Yohan felt a chill that had nothing to do with the air conditioning. He had come for a confrontation, and he had gotten one.
But he had not broken through Silas's defenses. He had only confirmed their existence. Silas was not just a leader.
He was a gatekeeper, a warden, standing guard over a terrible secret. And he had just made it clear that he would destroy anyone, even Yohan, who tried to get past him.
Yohan left the Solarium, his mind in a turmoil of fear and defiance. The conversation had changed nothing and everything.
He still did not have the truth, but he now knew the scale of the conspiracy to hide it.
And he knew that his mentor, the man he had respected above all others, was now his enemy.