Chapter 19: When Silence Breaks
The war wasn't over.
But the silence was.
It shattered quietly.
A single encrypted pulse slid across Cyan's screen, so faint it nearly dissolved before detection. He stiffened instantly, eyes narrowing as his fingers hovered above the console.
"Someone found us," he said.
Mira turned from the window. She didn't ask who. She already knew.
Cyan began decrypting the signal—unstable routing, fragmented code, deliberate errors designed to evade Emberlight's trackers.
A message formed.
They told us you were erased.
If this is real… respond.
Mira's breath slowed. Not surprise. Recognition.
"They remember," she said softly.
The screen flickered again. Then again. Multiple signals now—each one different, each one hesitant, carrying the same invisible scars.
Children Emberlight had labeled as assets.
Experiments buried under redacted files.
Subjects scattered so far apart they had begun to believe they were alone.
Cyan leaned back, the weight pressing into his chest. "We weren't mistakes."
Mira stepped beside him, eyes locked on the growing network of lights. "We were proof."
A sharp warning flared across the interface.
Unauthorized access attempt detected.
Cyan's jaw tightened. "Vale."
The name carried history. Orders spoken in calm voices. Lives erased without hesitation.
"He felt the broadcast," Cyan said. "He's moving."
Mira didn't flinch. "Let him."
Outside, the city continued breathing—unaware that erased names were reconnecting in the dark, that silence had finally failed.
The Forgotten Subjects were answering.
And Emberlight had just lost control of its shadows.
.....