---
Farro sat on the stone seat.
It wasn't comfortable… nor was it harsh. But it carried something intangible — a weight that didn't belong to stone.
In front of him, the carved symbol began to glow slowly. A faint purple, pulsing like a calm heart underwater.
One of the examinees to his right scratched his neck, glancing around:
"What… does this mean?"
No one answered.
Some were inspecting the symbols beneath their feet.
Others stared at the chairs, as if they were traps waiting to snap shut on those who sat.
Ira cleared her throat and spoke, not to anyone in particular:
"This isn't a combat test… is it?"
A bulky young man, whose name was whispered among the group as Garm, replied:
"I hope it is. This silence… is worse than any sword."
A braided-haired girl sitting at the far end smiled:
"It's a test of the mind. Or the heart. Maybe… the soul."
One of them raised an eyebrow:
"Soul? I don't believe in that crap."
Ira suddenly said, eyes fixed on Farro:
"But you survived a forest filled only with death. Don't tell me you didn't believe in something."
Farro remained silent. Didn't move his head. Didn't reply.
But one of his fingers trembled gently… as if writing a word in the air no one else could see.
Then the voice returned.
That same metallic, feminine tone—echoing from nowhere:
"The test has begun."
---
In the next instant… the white flames above were extinguished.
Complete darkness.
But not ordinary darkness.
Rather… a sensation.
As if the light had been withdrawn from within, not from without.
Someone let out a sharp breath.
Another gasped.
Ira murmured, barely audible:
"What is this feeling…?"
Suddenly, they all felt something pulling their backs toward the seats.
Not a physical force.
But a… call.
And then—
The world split.
---
Seven seats.
Seven shadows.
Seven stories yet untold.
---
1. Ira
The darkness settled in her eyes… but it wasn't unfamiliar.
She was back again.
That white, empty room where the echo of breathing revealed more fear than any scream.
"You are not what you think you are."
Said the voice behind the glass. Cold. Neutral. Clinical.
But she knew. This wasn't a test. It was an erasure.
Ira reached out toward the glass… and found no reflection.
---
2. Garm
His tensed muscles couldn't protect him from that feeling—
Weakness.
In the dark, he heard the knocking.
Once. Twice. Three times.
Then the door creaked open.
And that face…
The face of his father, curling in the shadows.
"You failed again, son of failure."
He wanted to shout, to destroy the walls, to tear the world down.
But he remained still.
As if his body… no longer belonged to him.
---
3. Kai (the braided girl)
The violet glow illuminated a moment from her childhood.
The silence after the blast.
She sat on the steps of an abandoned building, hugging a headless stuffed bear.
In the sky… no stars. Only planes.
On the ground… not corpses. Just absence.
"Tell the truth, Kai… who saved you?"
Asked the one-eyed woman.
But she hadn't answered then.
And didn't now.
---
4. Silo (the quiet boy)
His hand trembled on the chair.
But his lone eye remained fixed.
He was very young when they left him.
He remembered that night… his mother holding him close, whispering:
"Stay quiet. Don't make a sound. Even if you hear me scream."
Then the door opened.
And—
Now, the violet light echoed a scream that had never been heard.
---
5. Nayan (the slender, curious-eyed girl)
She stood before a massive clock.
Its hands spun backward.
Each second replayed pain.
"You cannot change the past,"
Said the strange man who taught her to read.
But she kept trying.
With thread. With eyes. With time.
And in the dark… she saw herself looking back at her… and crying.
---
6. Samer (the short boy with a limp)
In the void, he stood.
Still. Soundless.
He felt helplessness creep in like a crawling insect.
The pain wasn't only in his body.
That limp in his leg… was more like a wound in his soul.
As a child, he had tried to run. To be like the others.
But they had laughed.
"You'll never walk the way we want."
The echo of those words broke something in him.
But it never killed him.
Even now.
---
7. Farro (the white shadow)
He too sat—quiet—but with oceans of questions in his eyes.
He remembered the forest, the pain, the blood.
But above all… he felt an emptiness inside that nothing could fill.
That emptiness…
Was not merely the absence of power.
But the absence of self.
An inner voice asked him:
"Who are you, Farro?"
And he had no answer.
Silence.
Then the same voice, in a different tone:
"This time… you must know."