Chapter 41: The Forgotten Melody
977 Words
Silence.
Thousands of people stood motionless beneath the evening sky.
No one spoke.
No one moved.
The words floating across the ancient crystal seemed to have frozen the entire Royal Plaza.
«Designation: Unknown
Resonance Detected
Classification: Lost»
Echo looked around nervously.
"...Should I take my hand off now?"
The crystal answered by emitting another pulse of light.
"YES!"
Three scholars shouted simultaneously.
Echo immediately pulled his hand away.
"...Definitely not a good sign."
---
The crowd erupted into chaos.
"Lost?!"
"What does that mean?"
"I've never heard of Resonance!"
"Wasn't that symbol mentioned in ancient records?"
Scholars hurriedly began flipping through books.
Royal officials whispered amongst themselves.
Even the guards looked uncertain.
Echo slowly walked back toward the group.
"So..."
"...how bad is it?"
Edric looked genuinely stunned.
"I have absolutely no idea."
"That's somehow more concerning."
---
Lyra remained perfectly still.
Her eyes hadn't left the crystal.
"Resonance..."
She quietly repeated the word.
Echo tilted his head.
"You know what it means?"
She hesitated.
"...Not entirely."
"That's a very suspicious answer."
"It's also the truth."
Before Echo could ask another question, the elderly scholar from the Hall of Harmony approached them.
His hands were trembling.
"You..."
He pointed directly at Echo.
"...Where did you learn Resonance Magic?"
Echo blinked.
"I didn't."
"Impossible!"
"I promise I'm not lying!"
The old man looked as though his entire understanding of magic had just been challenged.
"Young man..."
"The last recorded mention of Resonance Magic disappeared nearly four hundred years ago."
Echo slowly processed that information.
"...Is four hundred years considered a lot?"
Everyone stared at him.
"...I'm just making sure."
---
Dorothy stepped forward.
"My student knows nothing about Resonance."
The scholar looked at her in disbelief.
"Lady Dorothy..."
"Do you realize what this means?"
Her expression remained calm.
"No."
"And neither do you."
The old man immediately fell silent.
After several moments, he reluctantly nodded.
"...Fair enough."
---
High above the plaza, the Royal Academy officials had begun their own discussion.
"This changes everything."
"We should inform the Headmaster immediately."
"What if the records are incorrect?"
"What if they aren't?"
The debate continued long into the evening.
Meanwhile...
Echo simply wanted dinner.
---
The group eventually left the plaza amidst endless whispers.
People moved aside as they passed.
Some stared at Echo with curiosity.
Others with concern.
A few looked genuinely frightened.
Echo quietly moved closer to Dorothy.
"I don't like being famous."
Dorothy smiled faintly.
"You aren't."
"Then why is everyone staring at me?"
"Because they're curious."
"That's somehow worse."
---
As they walked through the festival streets, Echo finally noticed something.
"Wait..."
He pointed toward Lyra.
"You weren't surprised."
She adjusted her glasses.
"I was."
"No."
"You were surprised before everyone else."
For once...
Lyra didn't immediately answer.
After several moments, she sighed.
"I've spent most of my life studying forgotten branches of magic."
"And?"
"And Resonance appears more often than it should."
Echo blinked.
"That sounds contradictory."
"It is."
---
They eventually stopped beside one of Astraea's quieter canals.
Festival lights reflected beautifully across the water.
For the first time since leaving the plaza...
The group found a moment of peace.
Lyra carefully opened one of her books.
Its pages were ancient.
Some sections had faded entirely with time.
She turned to a page depicting a familiar symbol.
A spiral surrounded by seven waves.
Echo immediately pointed at it.
"That's the thing!"
"Yes."
"You have a book about my thing?"
"...Please don't call it that."
"I'm still learning the terminology."
---
Everyone quietly gathered around.
The page contained only a few readable lines.
«"The world was not created in silence."
"Before flame..."
"Before wind..."
"There was Resonance."»
Echo slowly read the words aloud.
"...That sounds important."
"No one knows what it means."
Lyra gently turned the page.
The next section had been badly damaged.
Only a single sentence remained.
«"When the Seven Melodies become one..."»
The rest was gone.
Echo frowned.
"...That's it?"
"That's it."
"Ancient people were terrible at leaving instructions."
Even Dorothy almost laughed at that.
---
Kodie quietly spoke for the first time in several minutes.
"The crystal called it Lost."
Lyra nodded.
"Not extinct."
"Lost."
Mira looked thoughtful.
"There's a difference."
"A very important one."
Lyra closed the book.
"Extinct means something no longer exists."
"Lost means..."
"...it's waiting to be found."
Silence followed.
Echo looked toward the festival lights in the distance.
"So somewhere..."
"...there are other people like me?"
"No one knows."
"And that's supposed to make me feel better?"
"It wasn't."
---
The evening breeze gently passed through the city.
For a while...
No one spoke.
Finally, Dorothy broke the silence.
"Echo."
"Yeah?"
"What did you feel?"
Everyone immediately looked toward him.
"When you touched the crystal."
Echo thought carefully.
"It felt..."
He struggled to find the words.
"...Like listening."
"Listening?"
He nodded.
"To everything."
"The people."
"The wind."
"The city."
"It all sounded..."
He paused.
"...Connected."
Lyra's eyes widened ever so slightly.
"Connected..."
She quietly repeated the word as though committing it to memory.
---
Far across the canal...
A hooded figure silently watched the group from atop a nearby building.
"Connected to the world itself..."
The figure smiled beneath their hood.
"So the records were true."
They quietly disappeared into the night before anyone noticed.
---
Back at the canal, Echo stretched his arms.
"Well."
"Whether I'm lost, forgotten, or secretly ancient..."
He smiled.
"I'm still hungry."
The moment was immediately ruined.
Mira laughed.
Kodie sighed.
Edric shook his head.
Dorothy smiled.
Even Lyra quietly covered her mouth to hide her laughter.
Some things, it seemed...
Would never change.
Yet none of them realized it.
Tonight...
The world had changed.
And somewhere in the darkness...
Something very old had finally awakened.
---
End of Chapter 41
«Some mysteries are hidden in forgotten books.
Others are hidden within the people who were destined to find them.»
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