Six Months (episode 3)

A heartbeat.

Then another.

A faint current of light moves through darkness.

A calm voice begins over abstract images of a child developing before birth.

For most children, Lumen develops with them. It settles. It responds to the body taking shape

around it.

Patterns emerge. Affinities begin to separate themselves from everything else.

Osei Meren was different.

He was the first and only child born to the highest noble line of House Namaris - the child of two

families carrying the highest-ranking bloodlines of the House's ancestral clans.

Inside him, Lumen does not settle in the expected way.

It remains clear. Dense. Almost untouched.

A reservoir.

Water moves through one image.

Air folds around another.

Neither rejects the other.

They coexist.

A newborn Osei opens his eyes.

Water in a basin beside him trembles.

Nobody touches it.

The water rises.

A soft current of air turns it in a slow circle.

His parents stare.

Cut forward.

Osei is a small child now. He sits perfectly still while water crosses a room around him. No hand

signs. No command. No strain.

The air carries it exactly where he wants it.Again.

Older.

A training court.

Something forces him to exert himself.

The effortless movement disappears.

Pressure crashes outward.

Water detonates across the court. Stone fractures. Adults rush in.

Osei stands in the middle of the damage.

Untouched.

Watching.

House Namaris had produced only three tournament champions.

Now everyone looks at the same child.

Teachers become more careful with him. Elders forgive things they would punish in someone

else.

Servants anticipate what he wants before he asks. Adults speak about the House's future while he

is standing close enough to hear every word.

Prodigy.

Heir.

Future House Head.

The future of Namaris.

The boy grows up hearing it until it stops sounding like praise.

It sounds like fact.

Cut to the present.

Osei sits while someone finishes placing something in front of him.

His expression is soft. Courteous.

OSEI: "Thank you.

"

The person leaves.

Osei does not look after them.

His thought arrives as naturally as breathing.

As you should.CUT TO BLACK.

OPENING THEME.

LATE NIGHT - THE FIVE HOUSES

Harmony City is quiet now.

The ceremony is over. The excitement has burned itself out. Roads that were crowded hours

earlier are almost empty.

Across the House delegations, the candidates finally stop performing for one another.

RUUN.

Kest is asleep beside Frostmane, completely exhausted.

Iria sleeps nearby with Redstep.

Nalin is out too.

Edrin is not.

He sits awake in the low light, watching the young team breathe.

No speech. No lesson.

Just a teacher making sure everyone is there.

VERIDIAN.

Their transport moves steadily through the night.

Zahra sleeps.

Hakeem rests with his eyes closed.

Asha is still staring at her device.

Her eyes get heavier.

The device lowers a little.

A little more.

Eventually she loses the fight and lets herself rest.

Cael sits by the window.

The dark landscape moves past him.

He thinks about Soraya.

He smiles before he realizes he is doing it.

AURELIS.

A quiet corridor.Lyrian and Solara should have said good night several minutes ago.

They have not.

They keep finding one more meaningless thing to say.

A pause lasts slightly too long.

Lyrian starts to speak.

Solara starts at the same time.

Both stop.

Both look away.

From another room - a ridiculous snore.

Then Joven mumbles something unintelligible in his sleep.

Lyrian and Solara both try not to laugh.

Elsewhere, Seraphina sits alone in meditation.

Eyes closed.

Breathing even.

Already preparing.

BRANNOCH.

Soraya sits in the dark.

The tiny eye pin rests beside her House crest.

She stares at it.

It stares back.

Across the room, Darsa and Mica whisper about Kellan.

Whatever they say nearly makes Darsa laugh out loud.

Mica immediately gestures for her to keep it down.

Kellan sleeps through all of it.

NAMARIS.

Tavian sleeps.

Esme sleeps.

Lucan sleeps.

Then Osei.

An enormous bed.Perfect sheets.

More space than one person could possibly need.

Osei is sleeping like a fucking prince.

CUT.

HARMONY CITY - OUTER PERIMETER

Emergency lights wash the damaged corridor and security perimeter in white and red.

The fight is over.

UWG AFTERMATH - SEARCH

The battlefield is no longer quiet.

U.W.G. RESPONSE TEAMS FLOOD THE AREA.

Search lights rip through the trees.

Aerial units sweep overhead.

Personnel move through damaged terrain.

UWG SOLDIER: "Six confirmed! We're still missing one!"

Another team disappears deeper into the darkness.

Someone shouts from farther ahead.

Everyone turns.

Movement.

Branches breaking.

Weapons rise.

A search team converges—

Nothing.

Then another call.

UWG RESPONDER: "OVER HERE!"

Teams rush toward the voice.

Deep beneath damaged vegetation, partially concealed by debris— A body.

The seventh Aruunai.

Something is wrong with its shape. Dark, ridged plating runs along the forearms and down the

spine, fused into the skin. The fingers end in blackened points.

Alive.Barely.

Weapons immediately train on it.

It tries to move.

Can't.

Someone checks it.

UWG RESPONDER: "Alive!"

Another responder approaches carefully.

UWG RESPONDER: "Get containment here. Now.

"

CUT.

Damaged stone. Scorched barriers. Medics moving between wounded personnel. U.W.G. teams

sealing the area.

The seven Aruunai are no longer something from a documentary or a history lesson.

They reached Harmony's edge.

THE SURVIVOR

A secured transport moves through an underground U.W.G. facility.

Inside is the surviving Aruunai.

The prisoner looks barely alive - gaunt, dehydrated, wrists bound, head hanging forward.

Up close, the body is not entirely human. Plating grows along the collarbone and neck. The

breathing has a second rhythm under it, slightly out of step, like two sets of lungs.

Even so, every door the transport passes is reinforced.

Every guard gives the container space.

The transport stops.

Multiple locks release.

The prisoner is transferred into a purpose-built Lumen-resistant containment cell.

Layered restraints lock into the floor and wall.

Monitors come alive.

Suppression readings stabilize.

A researcher checks the numbers twice.

Only then does the room relax slightly.

VAEL ENTERSThe door opens.

Jonathan Vael enters without theatrics.

The room settles around him.

He studies the captive.

VAEL: "Status?"

A medical officer answers: severe dehydration, severe malnourishment, exhaustion. The prisoner

needs treatment if they expect meaningful answers.

Vael looks through the reinforced barrier.

RESEARCHER: "Corruption's spread through the whole body. Advanced stage.

"

VAEL: "Can it be reversed?"

RESEARCHER: "Nobody's ever tried to find out.

"

A beat.

VAEL: "Keep him alive.

"

A beat.

VAEL: "We need to know why they came here.

"

INTERROGATION

Vael sits across the reinforced barrier.

VAEL: "What is your name?"

Nothing.

VAEL: "Where did the seven of you come from?"

The captive's lips move.

A dry, scratchy sound comes out.

Nobody can understand it.

VAEL: "How many more are there?"

The prisoner tries again.

Another broken sound.

VAEL: "Why were you approaching Harmony?"

The captive slowly raises his head.

VAEL: "Are more of you coming?"

Silence.Then -

A metal fixture trembles.

THE PRESSURE

One researcher looks up.

A containment reading shifts.

The captive's breathing becomes ragged.

The restraints tighten against sudden movement.

A warning tone sounds.

Vael does not move.

The air in the room feels wrong.

Compressed.

Heavy.

Another warning.

The restraints begin to strain.

RESEARCHER: "Suppression is climbing.

"

The captive jerks forward.

And the cell erupts.

DISCHARGE

A violent pressure-like blast slams through the chamber.

Restraints wrench loose.

Metal tears free.

Cracks race through reinforced surfaces.

The observation barrier shudders hard enough to throw personnel backward.

Alarms overlap.

The containment system fights to compensate.

Vael remains on his feet, staring through the shaking glass.

RESEARCHER: "Secondary suppression! NOW!"

Additional systems engage.

The pressure surges once more -

Then collapses.The captive drops.

Barely conscious.

For several seconds, nobody speaks.

CONFIRMATION

A researcher looks at the damage.

Then at the medical readings.

Then back at the prisoner.

VAEL: "How close?"

The researcher hesitates.

RESEARCHER: "Close enough.

"

The answer changes the room.

The prisoner is starving.

Dehydrated.

Restrained.

Inside a facility built specifically to suppress Lumen.

And still did this.

Vael looks at the fractured cell.

There is no triumph in his expression.

Only calculation.

Responsibility.

COMMAND

Vael enters the operations floor.

A reconstruction of the seven Aruunai's path spreads across a large display.

The route toward Harmony is incomplete.

Vael points to the broken line.

VAEL: "Build it backward.

"

Analysts begin working.

VAEL: "Find where they came from.

"

The route extends.

VAEL: "And find out if there are more.

"The display continues westward into unknown territory.

Vael watches it for one second.

Then activates an alert.

THE ELITE UNIT

Across Harmony, important rooms stop.

A government briefing pauses.

A research projection freezes.

A strategic conference goes silent.

Major responsibilities are handed to deputies.

Doors close behind people the public knows as decision-makers.

Different doors open in front of them.

Armories.

Equipment bays.

Voran react to the alert.

Armor locks into place.

#01 - DARIUS COLE. THE HEAVY.

#02 - REI MORI. THE NULL.

#03 - JALEN TAYLOR. THE VECTOR.

#04 - MALIK JENSEN. THE DREADNAUGHT.

#05 - JONATHAN VAEL. THE COMMANDER.

#06 - ARIANA VEX. THE VANGUARD.

#07 - ADRIAN VAELOR. THE MARKSMAN.

#08 - LYSANDRA. THE BLADE.

#09 - VALERIA MOREAU. THE DIRECTOR.

#10 - SANIYAH COLE. THE FIELD ENGINEER.

One by one, they move toward the same assembly point.

A phrase is visible beneath the U.W.G. insignia:

WE MAKE THE DECISION. WE TAKE THE RISK.

The ten stand together.

Not officials sending soldiers toward danger.The officials are the soldiers.

DAWN

Morning reaches Harmony.

Sunlight rolls across towers, roads, water, and distant House territory.

A tournament display changes.

SIX MONTHS REMAIN.

No time has passed beyond the night.

The clock starts now.

HOUSE RUUN - FIRST WEEK

Kest and Frostmane are already moving.

Iria and Redstep answer.

The drill is not simply speed or power.

It is communication.

Timing.

Trust.

Human and Voran learning where one intention ends and the other begins.

Nalin works beside them.

Edrin watches everything.

Last night he watched them sleep.

This morning he makes them work.

HOUSE VERIDIAN - FIRST WEEK

Marked zones cover a training floor.

Information changes faster than the candidates can settle into one plan.

Zahra tracks the field.

Hakeem holds position until the exact moment movement becomes necessary.

Asha reads, adjusts, repositions.

Cael appears where the others need him.

The lesson is clear without anyone saying it:

Know where the battle is becoming before you commit to where it is now.

HOUSE BRANNOCH - FIRST WEEKImpact.

Noise.

Someone hits the ground.

Someone laughs.

Kellan gets back up immediately.

Darsa looks delighted.

Mica looks like this is exactly the nonsense he expected.

Soraya joins the next exchange.

The eye pin is hidden beneath her training clothes.

Brannoch training is physical, messy, aggressive, practical - and somehow still feels like family.

HOUSE AURELIS - FIRST WEEK

Clean lines.

Measured steps.

Again.

Again.

Again.

Seraphina repeats a sequence until there is nothing wasted in it.

Lyrian does the same.

The younger fighters are held to the same standard even when they cannot yet meet it.

Aurelis does not train for spectacle.

It trains until precision becomes habit.

HOUSE NAMARIS - FIRST WEEK

Stillness.

Water hangs suspended.

Air turns around it.

Osei stands at the center without moving his hands.

The formation changes.

Tavian, Esme, and Lucan train around him, each working through their own discipline.

But the eyes of the House keep returning to Osei.

Control.Command.

Expectation.

Osei notices every look.

Of course he does.

WESTWARD

Back in Harmony, the Elite Unit stands before the reconstructed route.

The line leaves the city.

Runs backward along the path taken by the seven Aruunai.

And continues west.

VAEL: "Mori. Taylor. With me.

"

The other seven hold their ground. Their work is here.

Ten U.W.G. regulars fall in behind the three of them.

Jonathan faces the twelve.

VAEL: "We follow their route.

"

VAEL: "We find where it began.

"

VAEL: "If there are more, we find them before they reach Harmony.

"

No speeches.

No hesitation.

The doors open.

The Elite Unit moves out.

Intercut:

Kest and Frostmane running another synchronization line.

Veridian candidates repositioning.

Kellan getting knocked down and standing back up.

Aurelis repeating the same movement until it is clean.

Water and air turning silently around Osei.

Six months until the tournament.

And somewhere beyond Harmony, something has already forced the people protecting that future to move. 13 soldiers disappear westwards