Chapter Three: The Sound from the GateChapter Three – Paths from the Other Side

Chapter Three: The Sound from the Gate

Chapter Three – Paths from the Other Side

The night was not as Vetin had known it. Sleep, which usually crept upon him after his failed attempts, did not find him this time. Instead, he remained awake, entranced, as if his body was no longer his own.

The sudden success did not grant him the comfort he had expected. It weighed him down, replacing his anxiety with something deeper. Knowledge. The knowledge that the world he had reached out to had answered back.

At the first hint of dawn, Vetin rose from his rickety wooden bed, his bare feet touching the cold floor. He walked toward the lab as if drawn by some invisible force.

He opened the door, and it was as he had left it, yet something in the air had changed.

An eerie silence. A stillness charged with something unknown.

He approached the device, but did not touch it. He stood before it as though standing before a sacred altar.

He opened his notebook. The page where he had written just the night before: "The world has answered… and breathed." He stared at it for a long time, then added in a smaller script, almost a whisper:

"Was the breath a greeting? Or a warning?"

"Was what I felt an answer? Or the beginning of something greater… than I can comprehend?"

He took a deep breath and picked up a small piece of blue energy stone, placing it at the center of the table. Carefully, he surrounded it with silver thread energy circles, reprogramming the device, changing frequencies, reversing the signals.

But this time, he was calmer.

He was no longer experimenting; he was listening.

He opened the lab's window. The sky was gray, light breaking through hesitantly. The distant mountains were silent, but Vetin smiled as though hearing something no one else could.

He whispered softly, "This silence is no longer mine alone."

Suddenly, a faint flicker appeared on the small side screen, blinking slowly, then displaying a red line:

[Interference in frequency] [Unidentified reverse wave]

Vetin froze, as though something had run down his spine.

He looked at the screen, then at the device, and finally out the window.

He moved slowly, placing his hand upon the device as if it were a living heart.

He whispered, "Are you knocking from the other side?"

As he continued to watch, there was something in his eyes—something other than madness. It was like the first love for an impossible idea.

He took a glass of water. With every sip, his eyes never left the device before him, afraid that the world would speak again and he might miss it. He waited for an hour, then two, then five, standing there, still, trying to adjust the frequencies.

Nightfall came, and Vetin remained in place, watching the device, waiting for another sign, as though it were his life's purpose now to listen for something that could never be explained. Eventually, exhaustion took him, and he fell asleep in his chair.

A loud, sudden sound, like an explosion followed by a high-pitched hum or signal from the device.

He awoke with a start, rushing to examine the machine.

"Hello? Hello, can you hear me?"

His voice was quiet, pretending to be calm, but trembling beneath the surface.

"Who are you? Can you hear me? Are you able to sense my presence? Can you feel me?"

The voice that responded was fractured, like the sound of a being from another world, yet sharp like a woman's voice emerging from the device. It made Vetin stand still, stunned, as if he had won every battle, earned every reward, and the very goal he was born for had finally been reached.

But he forced calmness back into his voice, knowing that what he faced was not something familiar. He had to remain alert.

He moved closer to the rift.



"I hear you... but your world..."

Vetin paused, struggling to choose the right words, hesitant, unsure which response would be best. If he said yes, perhaps they would begin questioning him about things he could not answer. If he said no, perhaps that would expose a weakness he could not afford to reveal.

"Hello? Are you there?"

Vetin regained his composure.

"Yes, I hear you… I don't know your true intentions, so I can't answer everything you seek. Perhaps one day I will tell you the answers you are looking for."

A crackling sound emerged from the device as if some machine was adjusting its frequencies.

"Whenever you wish to speak, I am here. I hear you."

Vetin swallowed hard, trying to keep his composure. What the rift had said haunted him. Was it really watching him? Was the other world monitoring him, or was this some kind of test? And what did it want from him?

He whispered, steadying himself, "I will decide that, in time. I will decide when it's safe to open the doors to secrets. Until then..."

The rift closed without further words.

Vetin remained staring at the empty space where the portal had been. His expression remained one of quiet dread, for what he had just heard was not something easily dismissed. If the rift was truly watching, when had it started? Was it watching the entire planet, or was it only watching Vetin? What were its plans? How much had they learned? Was the planet at risk? Would his curiosity about other worlds be the cause of his home's ruin?

These questions swirled in his mind, tormenting him with a blend of fear, regret, and guilt. He did not know which feeling to cling to.