Up on the Okama Plateau, the vast, flat expanse, a mantle of snow covered every surface all the way to the horizon, making the earth and sky bleed together into a single, seamless void of porcelain white.
There was no sound here but the crunch of the drifts under Idan’s heavy boots and the whistle of the gale through the porous stone pillars, a hollow, ghostly music that seemed to mourn the very sun itself.
As they crossed an invisible meridian, the world went mute.
The rhythmic crunch of their boots vanished.
The wind became a ghost of muted breath over the skin.
Sound collapses here,Idan murmured into her mind.The mineral composition of these dunes absorbs every vibration. We’re standing in a pocket of near-zero acoustic input.
He stopped and turned to her, his amber eyes scanning the horizon where the violet sands shifted into obsidian spires that pierced the sky.
The silence calms your brain’s fear center and heals stress injuries three to four times faster after just one night. Tis the ultimate reset for a fractured mind.
They sat on a plateau of dark stone to eat their lunch, gazing out at the soundless vista.
The food flavors, heightened in the silence, burst on her tongue: the sweetness of the berries, the rich, smoky salt of the meat, and the dense, nutty bread.
Sheba was hit with a profound stillness, a peace so deep it was almost heavy.
It’s stunning,she whispered.
This is why I must protect it at all costs. I have something I need to do now. Stay where you are, salkia and enjoy the show.
She arched a brow as he rose and strode about one hundred meters out into the desert vista.
He raised his hands, and the atmosphere began to fracture.
He drew raw energy from the dry air, blue-white lightning coiling around his forearms like living serpents.
He traced intricate patterns in the space.
Faint, crystalline ripples shimmered into existence; wards, hexes woven from a geometry older than the stars.
He dispersed the force in a massive, pulsing wave that settled over the vast geography like an invisible, shimmering shield.
Sheba observed in awe as the sheer scale of his godlike nature hit her hard.
When he rejoined her, she shook her head in disbelief, her hands trembling as she touched his arm.
You’re something else.
He shrugged.I can’t help it. The Rhixon Corporation is eyeing these plateaus for new mines,’ he rasped. ‘The mineral concentration here is a siren song to them. If they break this ground, the silence dies, and the ecology too. I won’t allow it, so I set hexed traps. If anyone other than a local tries to bypass them, they’ll be incinerated.
Sheba stared at him, transfixed and unnerved by the passion for the territory they stood in and the indigenous people who lived here.
Sensing her emotion, he gathered her into an embrace and gave her a long, lingering kiss filled with a fierce heat.
Why do you care so much?she said with a wry smileasthey pulled apart.
It’s what needs to be done.
She huffed, unconvinced.Why do you carry the burden of an entire habitat, Idan? Why does this planet matter this much to you?
It is in my DNA to protect, he replied, his gaze fixed on the shimmering horizon.I possess a sense that my time in this realm is finite. I’m merely a visitor here, and I must safeguard the sanctuary that took me in when I fell from the heavens.
So you are High Sacran, not just some soldier on the run?
