Captain's focus in the observation chamber shifted. While understanding Kael's light and the Bedel remained paramount, Elara's theory about Kael and Vispera sensing The Void's intent offered a desperate, strategic advantage. If they could predict where The Void would strike, or what kind of manifestation would appear, it could save lives.
The tests became less about triggering light and more about refining Kael's connection to Vispera and the subtle nuances of the thrumming. Captain used his salvaged devices to isolate different frequencies and intensities of the ambient Void energy within the tower's walls. Elara used symbols from her research, old words or concepts associated with different aspects of the grey world, trying to give Kael and Vispera a framework for communication.
"Focus on Vispera," Elara would instruct gently, sitting beside Kael, her hand near his (a gesture he felt through presence, not touch). "Listen to the thrumming through her. Does it... does it feel like these symbols?" She would show him a drawing – perhaps jagged lines for aggression, smooth waves for creeping presence, or complex knots for change.
Kael would close his eyes, focusing inward, past the numbness and the mental voids. He would find Vispera's warmth, ever-present, and try to listen to The Void's low pulse through her. Vispera was the key; she seemed to instinctively react to the grey, interpreting its nature.
It was agonizingly difficult. The Bedel had stolen layers of his ability to perceive and understand. Trying to translate Vispera's subtle reactions into concepts, even simple ones, was a monumental effort.
Sometimes, Vispera's warmth would simply pulse with a sad understanding when exposed to a certain frequency. Other times, it would become sharper, a feeling of gentle, internal resistance. When Captain replicated the frantic pulse from the recent attack, Vispera's warmth flared with a distinct feeling – "Hunger. Fast."
Kael would struggle to articulate it. "Hunger... fast..." he would rasp, pointing towards the direction the attack had come from.
Captain and Elara would look at each other, a mix of grim confirmation and terrified hope on their faces. Hunger. The Void had intent.
Elara's symbols became a crucial tool. She would draw patterns, and Kael, focusing through Vispera, would feel a corresponding shift in Vispera's warmth or a specific internal resonance with one of the symbols. Jagged lines (aggression) would evoke a feeling of "Break. Hurt." Smooth waves (creeping presence) would feel like "Watch. Wait."
These were not easy translations. Kael was limited by his vocabulary, stolen memories, and fragmented understanding. Vispera's communication was subtle, intuitive, a language of feeling and presence rather than words or images.
The sessions were exhausting. Kael would be left drained, head aching, the Bedel's voids feeling wider, colder. The risk was real; even sensing, even trying to understand, seemed to demand a price. A flicker of disorientation, a moment where the numbness intensified, a brief, terrifying blankness where a less vital abstract concept (like 'direction' or 'texture') might momentarily vanish before returning.
Gus, watching from the doorway, would see Kael's exhaustion, his struggle, the blankness in his eyes. He saw only the decay, the curse. He didn't see the flicker of understanding in Captain's eyes, the desperate hope in Elara's. He saw only the danger, the proof that Kael was too connected to the enemy.
Captain, however, saw a desperate chance. A way to fight back with knowledge, not just salvaged weapons. If Kael could give them even a few minutes warning, if he could tell them the nature of the approaching threat, it could make all the difference.
The Bedel was the price. A terrible, soul-devouring price. But The Void was at their doorstep. And knowledge, however costly, might be their only weapon.
The chapter ends with Captain actively testing Kael's potential as a Void sensor, using Vispera as the interface, finding tentative success in discerning simple 'intents' like hunger or aggression, but facing the constant risk of Bedel and Gus's escalating opposition to this dangerous approach.