"Some are born into history. Others get in its way. I was born to stop it." — Aeryn Daal, Confidential Archive of Solaria's Inner Committee (partially declassified, Cycle 10078)
[✦ Testimony – Aeryn Daal | Record 01, Altamira Academy]
My name is Aeryn Daal.And even though I was born in Solaria — a fact that should be beyond question — not everyone seems willing to accept it as truth. I often catch glimpses of doubt, small gestures that hint people don't truly see me as one of their own, as someone from this world I now call home.Maybe that subtle distrust is rooted in my family's origins, in the fact that my parents came from Old Earth — a place wrapped in legends and echoes of a distant past.My mother came from the majestic mountains of Switzerland, a land of snow-capped peaks and deep valleys that now only live on in stories and faded holographic photos.My father was born in a floating city — a marvel of engineering that once danced among the clouds, now erased from history as if it had never existed at all, like a dream forgotten at dawn.
I vaguely remember the stories they told about their arrival in Solaria — a time when the Orb, that ever-present source of energy and connection, was barely spoken of among ordinary people.They say human interactions back then were more direct, more intimate. People looked each other in the eyes, searching for real connection, even as their words stayed cautious, measured.I learned that restraint — that ability to read between the lines and listen to the silences — long before I ever learned how to walk on Solarian soil.
Today, sixteen years have been woven into my life.And I find myself standing at the threshold of a major milestone: I'm about to graduate from Altamira Academy — a name that carries weight across Solaria.It's the first official institution of multidimensional knowledge, a place where the borders of reality expand, and the limits of the possible constantly blur.I know, it probably sounds ridiculous to anyone from a world where physics are... more conventional.But here in Solaria, where the very structure of the universe feels pliable, even the ridiculous is just another shade of reality.
Without a doubt, my favorite class is Geo-Cosmic History.I love diving into the intricate layers of time and space that converge around us.Still, I'll admit: sometimes this deep exploration into the cosmos leaves me with a pounding headache — as if my mind is stretching to grasp ideas that don't quite fit into linear logic.A good example?Just recently, Professor Arthur — a native from the Council known for his eccentric brilliance — shared an astounding perspective about our location.He told us, with dead seriousness, that we aren't really sitting in the South Atlantic like traditional maps suggest.Instead, he claimed Solaria vibrates in a "shifted frequency of four-dimensional reality" — a phrase that still echoes in my mind like an unsolved riddle.I remember the moment vividly: he said it while casually biting into a deep-blue apple — a common fruit here, but one that would surely baffle anyone from Old Earth.
Right then, a nagging doubt took root in my mind.Was Professor Arthur joking? Was it one of his strange ways to push us to think differently?Or... was he sharing a core truth about Solaria's existence?With the Council natives, you can never really be sure.Their logic often follows paths impossible to trace, and their humor is as elusive as the multidimensional reality they study.Maybe that's the most defining trait of life here: a constant uncertainty woven into everything.
[❖ Chronicle of the Anonymous Scribe]
The island of Solaria doesn't exist on a single plane.Its geographic structure floats among energetic tectonic lines known as stellar resonance vectors.From the outside, the oceans seem endless.From within, the Solarian archipelago is a core of balance, divided into seven urban rings.Each ring is governed by an order: Defense, Science, Memory, Transition, Communication, Truth, and Silence.
Altamira Academy stands at the heart of the Transition Ring.And Aeryn... stands there too.
[✦ Testimony – Aeryn Daal | Record 02, Confidential]
There's one thing they don't teach at Altamira:How to deal with the visions.
They started after I turned thirteen.At first, they were just dreams.But then... they became so real I could smell the air of another world.A world... destroyed.A world like Aetheria.
One day, I skipped class and wandered into the tunnels under the Crystal Pavilion.Down there, I found a sealed chamber.I wasn't supposed to open it.I did anyway.
What I found wasn't a weapon or a machine.It was a message trapped in light — a warning from an extinct civilization:
"Don't repeat our mistakes. Energy does not obey. It only remembers."
After that, everything blurred.A few days later, I accidentally intercepted a communication from the Inner Council.They were talking about a "Extraction Protocol" and something called Project Helios.They wanted to use the Solarian Core.Not to protect us... but to transcend.At any cost.
So I did what any trauma-laden interplanetary teenager would do:I sabotaged it.
[❖ Chronicle of the Anonymous Scribe]
No one ever discovered who caused the "Orb Anomaly," an event officially recorded as a spontaneous failure of Solaria's energy transfer system that indefinitely suspended Project Helios.The security recordings vanished.The Core routes were altered from a student console.The only trace left behind was a synthetic flower placed atop the main panel.A flower that never withers.A flower that only grows in the Ring of Silence.
[✦ Testimony – Aeryn Daal | Record 03, Unauthorized]
Sometimes people ask me why I stopped Helios.Why I didn't let them go through with it.Maybe we were meant for something greater, they say.
But I grew up among the ruins of those who thought the same.
Solaria isn't great because of what it can do.It's great because of what it has chosen not to do.
My name is Aeryn Daal.And if the world ever bleeds again, let it be known:At least once, someone chose not to take the easy path.