STORMERE
Season 1, Episode 7: "The Things We Carry"
FADE IN:
EXT. VERITA – ALLEYWAY – NIGHT
Rain falls softly. The city noises burst in the distance: muffled laughter, clinking glass, the life of people untouched by what’s just happened.
Kael returns and kneels beside the lifeless man. His hands tremble, red-stained. The rest of the group watches from a few steps away, silent. No one dares to speak.
Soren’s jaw tightens. Hunter looks between Kael and the body, torn between reason and shock.
LYRA (quietly): What happened? It was an accident… right?
Kael doesn’t answer. His breathing shakes. He stares at his hands like he’s trying to wash off something deeper than blood.
ALERIC: We can’t stay here. The guards will come and we'll all get arrested.
HUNTER (to Kael): Come on. We’ll figure this out later. We gotta move.
Kael rises slowly, still dazed. The group disappears into the shadows.
CUT TO:
EXT. VERITA – OLD DISTRICT – DAWN
A cold light filters through the clouds. The group walks in silence. Kael lags behind, eyes hollow. The tension is heavy enough to crush the air.
They pass crumbling statues and overgrown mosaics: remnants of an older part of Verita. Faded carvings of storms, waves, and falling stars mark the stone walls.
LYRA (quietly, to Ariadne): You think we’re cursed? Every stop we made so far, something bad happened.
ARIADNE: Cursed? No. I just think there's something happening. I feel so many shifts on the astral plane but can't understand what they've been trying to say.
SOREN (gruffly): Let’s just get out of this damn city before we're the ones that end up killed.
Hunter gives him a look, sharp but not hostile.
HUNTER: You don’t always have to turn your pain into anger, you know.
SOREN: And you don’t always have to turn anger into motivational speeches.
A beat. Then, despite themselves, both smirk slightly. A fragile truce.
CUT TO:
EXT. VERITA – GRAND LIBRARY – LATER
A towering structure of cracked marble and ivy. The group enters quietly: the sounds of the city fade into whispers of paper and dust.
Inside, bookshelves stretch like cathedrals. Ariadne’s eyes light up.
ARIADNE: This place… it’s the oldest building in Verita. The grand library.
ALERIC (softly): Maybe here is where we'll finally learn where we are supposed to go.
Kael sits apart, staring blankly. Hunter notices, but doesn’t push. Instead, Lyra drifts near Kael, hesitant.
LYRA: You did what you could. Don't blame yourself. It was an accident.
KAEL: I murdered a man. That doesn't matter.
LYRA: Maybe. But it’s still an accident. It happened. Now, all you got to do... is try to move on.
He looks at her, the faintest flicker of gratitude.
Across the library, Ariadne and Aleric sift through ancient scrolls. One of them, brittle and marked with oceanic sigils, catches Ariadne’s eye.
ARIADNE (reading): “Where the sands turn crystal and the sea reflects the sky, there the storm fell to earth for the first time.”
She looks up, realization dawning.
ALERIC: You’re saying Stormfall happens by the coast?
ARIADNE: Not just the coast. Krystal Sands. The words describe the geography perfectly. I've studied them in the past.
Soren whistles low.
SOREN: Guess we’ve got our next road trip.
HUNTER (quietly): At least this time, we know where we’re heading.
CUT TO:
EXT. VERITA – HILL OVERLOOK – SUNSET
The group stands on a hill above the capital. The city glows gold beneath them. The world beyond stretches wide: endless possibilities, and dangers they don’t yet understand.
Kael lingers apart, the orange light painting his face.
HUNTER (to Kael): We all make mistakes. What matters is what we do after we make them.
Kael doesn’t meet his gaze.
KAEL: And what if what comes after is worse?
Hunter doesn’t answer. He just claps Kael’s shoulder.
Lyra watches from a distance, a smile she doesn’t quite understand tugging at her lips.
FADE OUT.
END OF EPISODE