Saga: Silence Has Returned
TARA
The Path of Nexo
Part II — Silence Has Returned
Tara felt him before anyone brought the news.
She was standing alone at the edge of the ruined sanctuary where the Matrix had established one of their temporary camps, a dark cloth bound permanently across her useless eyes, the longer katana resting against her right shoulder and the shorter blade hanging at her left hip.
The morning was cold.
Wind moved through the mountains of Asaka.
Around her, women trained.
Steel struck steel.
Sahara was shouting corrections at a group of scouts.
Saga was somewhere above them among the old rooftops, moving so quietly that almost nobody could follow her.
Akamy sat with several younger warriors practising breath control before combat.
Tara heard all of it.
But beneath the ordinary world there was something else.
A pressure.
Faint.
Distant.
Wrong.
She became completely still.
Nexo opened.
Not like sight.
Never like sight.
Tara no longer tried to imagine shapes or colours. Nexo did not return the world Silence had taken from her.
It revealed another one.
Living beings became presences.
Movement produced intention.
Fear trembled differently from aggression.
A warrior preparing to strike changed before her muscles moved.
A frightened animal could be felt through foliage.
And certain creatures left stains within that invisible field that Tara had learned to recognise.
Rapax were one of them.
Their presence felt broken.
Artificial.
As though something alive had been constructed without ever truly belonging to life.
But this...
Tara knew this presence.
She knew it better than she knew her own heartbeat.
Her hand tightened around the katana.
Sahara noticed.
“Tara?”
No response.
Sahara approached.
“What is it?”
Tara slowly turned her covered eyes towards the south.
The world disappeared around her.
For a moment there was only that distant presence.
Cold.
Predatory.
Familiar.
A memory came with it.
Tharan falling.
Lira calling her name.
Mina screaming.
Saya staring at her with complete faith.
Venom.
Darkness.
Tara whispered:
“He's here.”
Sahara stopped.
“Who?”
Tara's jaw tightened.
“Silence.”
The Monster of Asaka
The reports confirmed it within hours.
Survivors had seen him.
Not clearly.
Nobody saw Silence clearly for long.
But the descriptions matched.
Disappearances.
Entire patrols slaughtered.
Bodies removed before reinforcements arrived.
Witnesses describing a creature that vanished from sight, moved faster than ordinary Rapax and seemed capable of commanding the others.
Then came intercepted observations from three different regions.
Large Rapax groups were no longer behaving independently.
They were converging.
Moving according to patterns.
Hunting with greater coordination.
Avoiding traps they had once entered blindly.
Someone was directing them.
And wherever those concentrations appeared, survivors reported the same thing.
A shadow that was not a shadow.
Claws.
Wings.
A long tail.
Briefly visible eyes.
Silence.
The creature that had murdered Tara's family had returned to Asaka.
But he had not returned alone.
He had become something more than the assassin that entered one house in the night.
Among the Rapax infesting Asaka, Silence had become their leader.
The apex predator.
The creature around which the others organised.
The name mothers used to frighten themselves when their children were late returning from shelters.
The name warriors whispered when a patrol disappeared without a sound.
The name attached to burned settlements, stolen bodies and homes found empty by morning.
Asaka had produced heroes, tyrants, beasts and wars throughout its long history.
But among the surviving Sapiens, no living creature was hated more than:
SILENCE.
Tara stood before the Matrix command table while the others gathered.
Sahara leaned over a map.
Saga stood with both arms crossed.
Akamy watched Tara.
None of them spoke immediately.
Finally Saga broke the silence.
“So.”
Tara turned towards her.
“So.”
“The bastard who killed your family.”
“Yes.”
“Is leading the creatures that killed ours.”
Sahara's expression changed.
Her younger brother had never been recovered.
Saga still did not know what had happened to her two sisters after the Rapax took them.
Akamy had watched her mother die trying to prevent the creatures from carrying away her father.
Different losses.
Same enemy.
Sahara placed one finger on the map.
“Then we kill him.”
Tara's response was immediate.
“Yes.”
Akamy remained calm.
“Not because we're angry.”
Saga looked at her.
“I am absolutely doing it because I'm angry.”
Akamy ignored her.
“If Silence commands the Rapax on Asaka, killing him could disrupt their organisation.”
Tara nodded.
“And he knows things.”
“About the Sumaya?” Sahara asked.
“Maybe.”
“About where the bodies go?”
Tara's voice hardened.
“Maybe.”
That was enough.
Saga drew her katana halfway from its sheath.
“Then we're agreed.”
Sahara looked around the table.
“We find Silence.”
Tara corrected her.
“No.”
The others looked towards her.
“We already found him.”
Her hand touched the blindfold.
“I can feel him.”
Hunting the Hunter
That became their advantage.
Not Sahara.
Not Saga.
Not Akamy.
None of them possessed Nexo.
They had sharpened their other senses through months of fighting beside Tara, but there was only one member of the Matrix capable of perceiving living presence through that strange Kwasar discipline.
Tara.
And even Tara did not fully understand how she had awakened it.
There were no teachers on Asaka who could explain what was happening to her.
No Kwasar had guided her.
No ritual had opened the path.
She had simply refused to accept blindness as the end of her life.
Somehow, through grief, obsession and years of Fighter discipline, she had touched something ordinary Sapiens were not supposed to touch.
Nexo.
Now she used it to hunt the creature that had created the need for it.
There was something almost cruelly appropriate about that.
Silence had taken her eyes.
And in doing so, he had forced Tara to learn how to see him.
For six days the Matrix followed.
Never close enough to attack.
Not yet.
Tara guided them through abandoned settlements and mountain corridors.
She could sense groups of Rapax before scouts visually confirmed them.
Sometimes three.
Sometimes twenty.
Sometimes hundreds.
And always, somewhere behind them:
Silence.
His presence was unmistakable.
But he was never alone.
That became the first problem.
“They protect him,” Sahara said.
The four women lay concealed along the ridge of a ruined aqueduct.
Far below, a convoy of Rapax moved through what had once been a farming settlement.
Saga watched through a small optical device.
“At least forty.”
“Fifty-two,” Tara said.
Saga lowered the device.
“You're showing off again.”
“I can't see your face, but I can feel you being irritating.”
Sahara almost laughed.
Akamy remained focused.
“And Silence?”
Tara's expression changed.
“Centre.”
“Can you isolate him?”
“Yes.”
“How many around him?”
Tara concentrated.
She felt bodies moving below.
Distorted Rapax signatures crossing one another.
Then the cold knot she hated.
“There are twelve staying close to him. Constantly.”
Saga observed.
“Personal guard.”
“Looks like it.”
“And another group ahead.”
Sahara studied the terrain.
“We couldn't reach him before the rest collapsed on us.”
“No,” Tara said.
Saga looked towards her.
“You sound disappointed.”
“I am.”
Akamy quietly replied:
“Good.”
Tara frowned.
“Good?”
“You still know the difference between revenge and suicide.”
The Harvest
The Rapax convoy stopped.
At first the women did not understand why.
Then Saga's expression hardened.
“Movement on the western road.”
Sahara shifted position.
A refugee column.
Perhaps eighty people.
Old people.
Children.
Several wounded Fighters.
They were trying to move between safe zones.
They had no idea what waited ahead.
Sahara whispered:
“We warn them.”
Saga grabbed her arm.
“Too late.”
Rapax moved.
Fast.
The attack began before the refugees understood they had been discovered.
Screaming rose from the valley.
Tara stood immediately.
Akamy caught her.
“No.”
“They're being slaughtered.”
“I know.”
Tara's breathing changed.
Nexo flooded outward.
Every life below became a point of terror.
Running.
Falling.
Fighting.
Dying.
And within the chaos, Silence remained still.
Watching.
Tara felt him.
Not fighting.
Commanding.
The Rapax surrounded the refugees rather than simply charging through them.
Some killed defenders.
Others disabled the wounded.
Several dragged living Sapiens away.
Tara's fingers trembled around the grip of her katana.
Sahara stared through the optics.
“They're sorting them.”
“What?”
Saga took the device.
“She's right.”
Rapax moved among the fallen.
Bodies were inspected.
Some were abandoned.
Others immediately collected.
Men were taken disproportionately.
Again.
Strong bodies.
Young bodies.
Warriors.
Several women too.
A wounded Sapiens attempted to crawl towards a dead companion.
A Rapax seized him by one leg.
The man screamed.
It dragged him towards a cluster of creatures carrying other bodies.
Sahara whispered:
“Animals.”
“No,” Tara said.
Her voice was frighteningly calm.
“Animals kill because they need to live.”
Below, one Rapax opened a membrane growing along its abdomen.
A corpse was forced inside.
The biological material closed around the body.
Another creature carried two dead Sapiens across its shoulders.
Others dragged prisoners still alive.
Akamy's face tightened.
“What are they doing with them?”
Tara remembered everything they had learned from fragments spreading through the Cosmos.
Stolen bodies.
Experiments.
Rapax.
Sumaya.
Rumours of worse things happening beyond Tzion.
“They're not killing us for territory.”
Saga lowered the optics.
“We already knew that.”
“No.”
Tara shook her head.
“I don't think we understood it.”
Her face turned towards the valley.
“They look at us and they don't see people.”
Silence remained at the centre of the formation.
Tara felt his cold presence.
“They see material.”
One child escaped the first circle.
Tara sensed her running.
Small.
Terrified.
A Rapax moved to intercept.
Tara drew both katanas.
Akamy understood immediately.
“Tara.”
“I know.”
“If we reveal ourselves—”
“I know.”
The child screamed.
Tara ran.
Sahara cursed and followed.
Saga was already moving.
Akamy drew her katana.
The observation mission ended.
The Ravine
Tara reached the first Rapax before it reached the child.
The creature was invisible.
That no longer mattered.
Nexo told her exactly where it was.
Long katana.
Right hand.
The blade cut upward.
Flesh opened.
The Rapax became visible as black blood exploded across its body.
Tara turned.
Short blade.
Throat.
Dead.
The child fell backwards.
“Run uphill,” Tara ordered.
“But—”
“NOW.”
Sahara appeared behind the child.
“I've got her.”
Two more Rapax approached.
Saga dropped from the ruins above them and buried her katana through one creature's back.
Akamy intercepted the other.
A single clean movement.
The Rapax collapsed.
Then the valley changed.
Tara felt it.
Hundreds of presences reacting.
Silence had noticed them.
Her blood went cold.
“He knows.”
Saga looked towards her.
“Silence?”
“Yes.”
“How angry?”
Tara's head turned.
The distant presence moved.
Towards them.
“Very.”
Saga smiled.
“Good.”
“No.”
Tara sheathed the short blade.
“We leave.”
Saga stared at her.
“Tara—”
“NOW.”
Rapax poured into the ravine.
The Matrix fighters positioned higher along the rocks opened fire and released arrows.
Sahara guided survivors towards a narrow mountain passage.
“Move! Don't stop!”
Akamy remained at the rear.
Saga vanished between collapsed structures, attacking isolated Rapax from angles they could not predict.
Tara stood in the centre.
Blindfold soaked by rain beginning to fall.
Nexo expanded.
One left.
Duck.
Strike.
Another behind Sahara.
“TWO STEPS RIGHT!”
Sahara moved.
A claw missed her.
Her katana answered.
Another above.
“AKAMY!”
Akamy looked up just as a winged Rapax descended.
She pivoted.
Cut.
The creature crashed beside her.
The four fought like women who had spent months learning one another.
But only Tara could feel the whole field.
She became the centre of their awareness.
Not giving them Nexo.
Never that.
Giving them what Nexo gave her.
“Three behind the wall!”
“Saga, don't move!”
“Akamy, left!”
“Sahara, roof!”
They trusted her.
That made them dangerous.
For a few minutes...
dangerous enough.
Then Tara felt Silence approaching.
Everything else became secondary.
That presence.
Closer than it had been since the night her world ended.
Tara stopped breathing.
Memory threatened to destroy concentration.
Saya.
Tharan.
Mina.
Lira.
Pain behind her eyes.
The sound of breaking glass.
Silence.
Sahara noticed Tara freeze.
“Tara!”
No response.
“TARA!”
Tara returned.
Barely.
“He's coming.”
“How close?”
“Close.”
Saga appeared beside them, blood across one sleeve.
“Then let him.”
“No.”
“Tara, this is what we wanted.”
“Not like this.”
Saga stared.
Tara could feel the numbers.
Rapax converging from every direction.
Too many.
Dozens becoming hundreds.
And Silence was bringing his personal guard.
If they stayed, vengeance would last approximately five minutes.
Then they would become bodies carried towards the same nightmare as everyone else.
Tara hated retreat.
But she hated giving Silence her friends more.
“Withdraw.”
The Chase
They ran through the mountain ruins.
Rapax followed.
Sahara led them towards terrain she had mapped days earlier.
“There!”
A narrow fracture between two ancient buildings.
Only one person could pass at a time.
The Matrix moved through.
Sahara threw an incendiary charge behind them.
Stone collapsed.
The first pursuing Rapax disappeared beneath rubble.
The others climbed over it.
“They're still coming!” someone shouted.
“Of course they are,” Saga replied.
Tara did not hear Silence.
She felt him.
Closer.
He was hunting her.
She knew it.
Perhaps he remembered the woman who had wounded him.
Perhaps he recognised her scent.
Perhaps the Rapax shared information about the blind Fighter who could perceive invisible creatures.
It did not matter.
Silence knew.
And Tara knew something else.
He was enjoying this.
They reached an abandoned bridge above a deep ravine.
Sahara stopped.
“Across!”
The survivors moved.
Rapax appeared behind them.
Akamy and Saga held the bridge.
Tara remained beside them.
“Tara!” Sahara shouted from the far side.
“Go!”
A Rapax lunged.
Tara intercepted.
Another.
Akamy cut its leg.
Saga finished it.
More arrived.
Too many.
Tara felt Silence.
Near.
Very near.
Then the rest of the battlefield seemed to disappear.
She turned her face towards the ruins behind the pursuing Rapax.
There.
A presence.
Standing still.
Watching.
Tara whispered:
“Silence.”
The creature did not need to answer.
She knew.
For a moment Tara forgot the bridge.
The Matrix.
The survivors.
Everything.
She wanted to run towards him.
Wanted to bury both katanas inside him.
Wanted to hear him scream the way her daughters had screamed.
Her body leaned forward.
Then a hand seized her shoulder.
Sahara.
She had returned.
“No.”
Tara pulled away.
“He's there.”
“I know.”
“You don't understand.”
“Yes, I do.”
“HE'S THERE!”
Sahara moved directly in front of her blindfold.
“And there are a hundred of them between you and him.”
Tara trembled.
“Sahara—”
“If you die here, he wins twice.”
That reached her.
Tara stood still.
Behind Silence, more Rapax arrived.
The cold presence remained motionless.
Protected.
Always protected.
He wanted her to come.
Perhaps that was the point.
Tara slowly stepped backwards.
Then another.
She raised the longer katana.
Not towards the nearest Rapax.
Towards Silence.
The creature could not know she was pointing directly at him.
Except...
Tara felt his presence change.
He knew.
Saga cut the bridge supports.
“Time to go!”
The Matrix crossed.
Akamy followed.
Tara remained for one final second.
Then she stepped back as the bridge collapsed.
Stone and Rapax fell into the ravine.
The survivors disappeared into the mountains.
Silence did not follow.
Not personally.
He remained on the opposite side.
Watching.
What Silence Had Built
Over the following weeks they learned more.
Silence had transformed the Rapax occupation of Asaka.
He established hunting territories.
Collection routes.
Protected gathering sites where bodies were accumulated before disappearing through anomalous passages.
Certain Rapax specialised in capture.
Others in assassination.
Others guarded the harvested bodies.
The strongest Sapiens were often taken intact if possible.
Men remained heavily targeted, although the reason was still unknown.
Women capable of unusual combat abilities were increasingly captured as well.
The Matrix discovered pits where clothing, jewellery and personal effects had been discarded.
The bodies were gone.
Thousands of objects remained.
A child's shoe.
A wedding ring.
Clan emblems.
Broken weapons.
A mother's necklace.
Things the Sumaya considered useless because those things contained something they did not understand.
Meaning.
Sahara found an insignia from her brother's clan.
She held it for a long time.
It did not prove her brother had been there.
But it proved someone from home had.
Saga discovered a bracelet identical to those worn by warriors from her eastern settlement.
She said nothing for the rest of the day.
Akamy found fragments of ceremonial clothing from her father's region.
Tara found nothing belonging to her family.
Their bodies had never been taken.
Because she had prevented it.
Only now did she fully understand what that meant.
Silence had not entered her home merely to murder.
He had intended to collect them afterwards.
Tharan.
Lira.
Mina.
Saya.
Their bodies would have disappeared into whatever nightmare waited beyond Asaka.
Tara had wounded Silence badly enough that night to force him to flee before he could complete the harvest.
She had failed to save their lives.
But without knowing it...
she had saved their dead from one final violation.
The realisation almost broke her again.
Almost.
Instead it created something harder.
Silence had come back to finish what creatures like him had begun.
Tara would not allow it.
Waiting
The Matrix changed strategy.
No heroic assault.
No suicidal charge.
They watched.
Mapped.
Learned.
They attacked isolated Rapax patrols.
Recovered prisoners.
Destroyed collection sites.
Burned bodies when recovery became impossible so the enemy could not take them.
Every mission weakened Silence's control slightly.
Never enough.
He remained surrounded.
Protected.
As though even the Rapax understood his importance.
Saga became impatient.
“We could bait him.”
“With what?” Akamy asked.
“Us.”
Sahara looked at her.
“That is possibly the worst plan you've had.”
“I've had worse.”
“I know. I was there.”
Tara said nothing.
She sat beside them with the blindfold across her eyes.
Nexo spread through the ruins around their camp.
No Rapax nearby.
No Silence.
Not tonight.
Saga looked towards her.
“You really think he'll make a mistake?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because everything living does eventually.”
“Rapax aren't exactly normal living things.”
“Silence bleeds.”
Tara remembered her blade entering him.
Remembered the scream.
“He gets angry.”
Another memory.
Silence fleeing through broken glass.
“He feels pain.”
Her hand closed around the longer katana.
“And he knows I'm alive.”
Akamy understood.
“You think he'll come for you.”
Tara nodded.
“Eventually.”
Sahara frowned.
“And if he doesn't?”
Tara turned her covered eyes towards the distant mountains.
“Then we keep taking pieces of his army until he has to.”
Far away, beyond the surviving lights of Asaka, Rapax gathered around their leader.
Silence stood among them.
Invisible.
Still.
Around him lay bodies collected from another destroyed settlement.
Some dead.
Some not.
The Sumaya wanted them.
The Rapax would deliver them.
The nightmare continued.
But something had changed.
For the first time since returning to Asaka, Silence was no longer hunting without resistance.
Somewhere in the mountains, four women were hunting him back.
A Ranger.
A Rogue.
A Monk.
And a blind Fighter who could feel him through the darkness.
Tara stood at the entrance of the Matrix refuge.
Wind moved across the cloth covering her ruined eyes.
She could not see the stars above Asaka.
She could not see the mountains.
She could not see the katana in her hand.
But somewhere beyond the limits of her Nexo...
Silence existed.
That was enough.
Tara slowly drew her blade.
“Keep hiding behind them.”
Sahara stood beside her.
Saga and Akamy joined them.
Tara's voice lowered.
“One day we'll find you alone.”
The blade caught a moonlight Tara would never see.
“And that day...”
Her grip tightened.