A soft chime stirred the stillness of morning—not the sterile tone of machinery nor the lifeless buzz of automated systems,but something far more human.
It was warm.Annoying.Endearingly persistent.
"Sylos, wake up already!"
The voice of a young woman rang in his ears, clear and familiar,as the curtains fluttered lazily in the artificial breeze of the climate control system.
Sylos Starlost opened his eyes slowly, blinking into the sterile white of an unfamiliar room.The high ceiling, the filtered glow from behind the curtains—none of it gave him a clue where he was.
"Where… am I?" he murmured, groggy and confused.His gaze landed on a girl seated beside the bed, her fingers idly scrolling a tablet.
Her voice sounded exasperated, yet her features held undeniable gentleness.
"You're in the hospital, obviously.Did you hit your head or something?"
"Why am I here…? I don't remember anything. Not even the dream I just had…"
Celindy—his childhood friend, as constant as the gravity beneath his feet.She let out a theatrical sigh.
"I came to see you last night.I rang the bell, but no one answered.No response on your comm either.So I let myself in…"
"You were unconscious, Sylos. Just lying there like a corpse."
Her eyes narrowed, half annoyance, half concern.
"You could've told someone you weren't feeling well.Your aunt and uncle aren't even here anymore, and you're still acting like a child."
Sylos rolled his eyes and thought to himself:
How obnoxious… but yeah, that's so Celindy.
She'd always been this way. Blunt. Overbearing. Tirelessly attentive.It was just her nature—her odd, sincere form of caring.
He smiled faintly.
"Did the doctors say what's wrong with me?Because I can't remember anything at all. It's just… blank."
Celindy shrugged.
"They ran neural scans, blood work, even memory stimulation.Everything came back normal…which makes it even weirder."
Sylos nodded quietly. The lingering feeling of estrangement clung to his chest.
"Anyway, I have to head to university.If you feel dizzy or anything, press the nurse call button, okay?"
He watched her rise and walk out, the door sliding shut with a muted hiss.
Some time passed.
Sylos reached for the tablet on the side table and flipped through mundane headlinesuntil one stopped him cold.
"New Planet Discovered: Humanity's Final Hope?"
"Exploratory probes confirm that 'Gleirios-9' possesses the highest Earth-like potential seen in a century."
"Humanity remains aboard the orbital megastructure Sanctuary of the Last Light (SOTLL)—our last known refuge."
He sighed deeply, an ache rising from somewhere beneath the skin,deep in his bones—as though weariness had etched itself into the very matter of him.
But just as he reached to switch off the tablet—
The world changed.
It was not a change of light.Nor of sound.But of sensation—a twisting pull,as if gravity had gone mad.
The room shuddered briefly—then fell silent,as if the laws of physics had momentarily ceased to exist.
Sylos froze.He stopped breathing.His muscles locked.But his mind—his awareness—remained vividly awake.
He was pulled into the void. Again.But this time…he remained aware.
Time itself stopped around him,but within his mind there echoed voices—wailing, whispering, chanting in languages without names.
And then, from the cacophony,one voice emerged.
"Welcome, Chosen One…"
"My name is #%@(^@)$... or, if you prefer simplicity, you may call me 'CI.'"
It was not a voice.It was all voices at once—laced with memory, drenched in futures not yet born,woven with truths too vast for language.
"I am the voice of all things. The voice of origin.""I see the strands of your thread—you are not merely the listener of the voice…You are the voice."
Sylos wanted to speak.To scream.But his body refused.
"You are a conqueror in the river of time…But beware—those chosen to conquer are often also chosen… to forget."
Suddenly—the hospital room returned.As if nothing had happened.
The biometric monitors still beeped.The newscast continued to murmur from the tablet.
"The exploration unit dispatched to Gleirios-9 has lost contact.Global authorities are now assessing the risk of mission failure…"
Sylos gasped for air,realizing he had not drawn breath for what felt like minutes.Sweat dripped from his brow and soaked his palms.
Was that… a dream?Or something far deeper?
The voice that had spoken to him…It wasn't a hallucination.
It was a calling.
And for the first time—he began to truly hear the voice of the universe.