THE ECHOE OF A BROKEN SKY

Prologue: Before the Silence
The valley burned.
Not the kind of fire that warmed homes or lit the night with comfort this was a devouring blaze, one that swallowed everything it touched. Houses cracked and collapsed into embers. Smoke choked the sky, turning dawn into a dull, blood-stained haze.
Screams echoed through the ruins.
Sebastian stood at the edge of it all, unmoving.
He was younger then less scarred, less hollow but already something had begun to fracture inside him. His uniform was too clean for the chaos around him, his rifle too steady in his hands. Orders still rang in his ears, sharp and merciless.
Advance.
Eliminate.
Leave nothing behind.
His grip tightened.
Ahead of him, a woman clutched a child, her eyes wide with terror, reflecting flames that had already taken everything else. For a moment just a moment the world slowed. The screams faded. The fire dimmed.
And there was only that child.
Small. Fragile. Alive.
Sebastian's finger hovered over the trigger.
Something inside him whispered Don't.
But the voice was weak. Buried beneath years of training, discipline, obedience. Beneath the making of something colder. Something emptier.
A ghost.
The shot rang out.
The echo lingered long after the bodies fell.
Miles away, in a different kind of hell, Elli learned what it meant to survive.
The refugee camp stretched endlessly, a sea of torn canvas and hollow eyes. Hunger was constant. Loss was expected. Hope... was dangerous.
She knelt beside a man whose breathing had already begun to falter, her hands trembling as she pressed against the wound in his chest. Blood seeped through her fingers, warm and unstoppable.
"Stay with me," she whispered, though she already knew he wouldn't.
She had seen too many like him.
Too many she couldn't save.