Time since the asteroid hit Earth: ~5.41 billion years (subjective to Aryan)
After observing memoryless emotion in Solin, Aryan grew fascinated with another question:
> "What happens to feeling… when there are no words?"
He chose a newly forming civilization — the **Merans** — amphibious, soft-formed beings on a tidal planet with three moons and sky rivers.
But this time, he seeded one condition:
**No language.**
No symbols. No speech. No gesture-code.
Just raw, pure experience.
> "What's the goal here?" Light God asked, lounging in a floating bean bag shaped like a question mark.
> "To see if connection is possible without expression," Aryan replied.
The Merans grew quickly.
They built coral shelters, shared food, danced in the rain.
But they never named things.
Never labeled love.
Never spoke sorrow.
And yet… they lived richly.
A mother touched her child's forehead when afraid — and the child understood.
Two lovers sat in stillness during stormlight, eyes open, hearts syncing like bioluminescent pulses.
When someone died, others placed stones in a spiral, circled once, and left. No cry. No prayer. But deep, trembling grief.
> "They feel more than they say," Aryan noted. "Maybe words... are filters."
But something strange happened.
One Meran — small, curious — began **drawing**.
Not art. Not symbols.
**Feelings.**
Circles that throbbed when angry.
Lines that wavered when lonely.
Color patterns that made others weep, laugh, hold hands.
He painted the tide.
He painted silence.
And the Merans began gathering around him — not to talk, but to **remember how they felt**.
> "He invented emotional syntax," Aryan said.
> "Oh my stars," Light God whispered. "He's inventing poetry... without ever saying a word."
One night, the young artist stood atop a tidal peak, painting the sky with glowing jelly-ink.
His final symbol: a broken line, reconnecting at the center.
And beside it: two dots, side by side.
No one explained what it meant.
Everyone **understood**.
> "So?" Light God asked, hovering upside down. "Do we call this chapter 'Silence is Golden'?"
> "No," Aryan replied. "Call it what it truly is — *The Silence Between Us*."
Because in that silence, they weren't alone.
They were seen.
They were felt.
They were… understood.
— End of Chapter 25