He didn't fix his mute. Instead, he walked back into the crowd, his heart beating at a volume the world wasn't ready for. He was no longer just a reader of other people's stories; he was the signal in the static.
Kael reached out. As their fingers brushed, the cacophony of the city didn't disappear, but it shifted. The noise of the machines became a heartbeat; the shouting of the wind became a chorus. He realized that the "Dragon" he had been running from—the overwhelming weight of reality—wasn't something to be feared. It was the music he had been missing. He didn't fix his mute
He stumbled into an alleyway, hands over his ears, sobbing. For the first time in twenty years, he heard the true sound of his own voice—raw, jagged, and real. "Is it too much?" a voice asked. Kael reached out