The Youngest Blue Cellodian: Chapter 4 - A Sidewalk Slam Story
It was sung.
A soaring arena, chiseled from harmony and memory, it rose high above Aetha Doma like a crown woven from moonlight and consequence. It floated on its own gravity, and as Jerry and Yero approached on a platform of folded wind, he realized the entire structure was humming—softly, like a choir remembering its purpose.
Jerry adjusted the straps on his backpack.
“Still wrapping my head around how your houses can float without tech.”
Yero smiled faintly. “It’s not tech. It’s composition.”
Alriya, walking ahead, glanced back. “This is where rhythm becomes law.”
Jerry nodded slowly. “Yeah. No pressure.”
Inside, thirteen beings hovered in a loose arc. Each wore a cloak in a variation of blue, black, green, or crimson, the colors flowing like rivers through their fabric. Their faces were aged in different ways: some youthful with ancient eyes, others ancient with youthful expressions.
Alriya stepped forward and bowed her head.
“Council. I bring forth the summoned one. Ayo of Earth. And Yero, reckoning-verse of Firstsky.”
The center-most figure floated slightly higher than the others. He wore a deep blue cloak with a single gold thread that pulsed down the middle like a heartbeat.
“I am Oren Valis, Versekeeper of the High Council. You enter the Axis of Four. Speak, Yero.”
Yero took a breath. “He came by rhythm. Not machine. Not intention. I believe he is the living echo of a prophecy hidden in the Original Verse.”
Murmurs rippled through the chamber.
A crimson-cloaked councilor leaned forward. Her voice was sharp, her eyes glowing red. “You bring an outsider, unaged and undisciplined, into the epicenter of the Fourfold Balance—why?”
Jerry spoke up. “Look, I didn’t ask to come here. But if I’m in, I’m not sitting out. So maybe start by explaining what the Fourfold Balance even is.”
Oren nodded, unoffended. “Then learn, Ayo of Earth. The Cellodians exist in four clans, each born of different philosophies about how time should be lived.”
He raised a hand, and four glowing symbols appeared in the air:
Firstsky — blue, gold-edged, the clan of preservation. They study time, write in it, and live through peace and endurance. All its members are old—billions of years. They believe in symmetry, balance, and poetic order. Yero is their youngest, and.. most dangerous, member.
Stillroot — green and silver, the clan of contemplation. They do not interfere, rarely speak, and live in meditation. Their members average in the thousands of years, and they often disappear into silence for entire eras.
Burnwake — crimson and rust, the clan of chaos and conquest. Once called the “Clashborn,” they see time as a weapon. Their members rarely make it past age 45, not because they cannot—but because they don’t want to. Violence and passion are their laws.
Glassfall — black and white, the fractured clan. Survivors of an ancient war between the others. Their members vary wildly in age. Some seek peace. Others vengeance. No one truly knows their numbers or allegiance.
The floating runes dissolved.
“We have balanced ourselves by opposing forces,” Oren said. “But your arrival risks tipping that.”
“I didn’t break your harmony,” Jerry muttered. “Sounds like it was already cracking.”
Alriya raised an eyebrow but didn’t correct him.
A different councilor—this one from Stillroot, draped in quiet green—spoke at last. “If he is truly echo-born, the Rhythm Bridge cannot be sealed. And others will come.”
Jerry frowned. “Others like who?”
Yero stepped forward, voice tight. “Other selves. Other versions of you. If the song reached across one dimension, it may have reached others.”
Alriya added, “And not all of them may want peace.”
The Council chamber fell still.
Then Oren spoke again, calm and grave. “Very well. Let the Echo Trials begin. Jerry Ayo, you will stay in Aetha Doma as an observed foreign agent. Yero will train you in the Verse Discipline. And together, you will prepare.”
Jerry scratched his head. “Prepare for what?”
All thirteen councilors said the same words in unison:
“The Convergence is coming.”
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