CHAPTER ONE: "No One Cries in Eirene"
There are three rules in Eirene.
1. No Loud noises
2. No facial expressions beyond 'Neutral Calm'
3. Never skip your CALMANA
Amira Kalu had broken the third one.
It wasn't on purpose. She just... forgot. It had fallen down the sink drain that morning while she was brushing her teeth, the tiny silver pill bouncing twice on porcelain before vanishing with a wet plunk. She stared into the drain for a full minute, wondering if she could reach in, maybe scoop it out somehow.
Then her father called her from the living room.
"Amira, six minutes to departure. Are you malfunctioning?"
She gave the standard response.
"No, Father. Functioning normally. ETA 5 minutes".
Lie. Her pulse was racing.
The pill was everything. Everyone knew it. It calmed your nerves. Silenced your thoughts. Stilled your heart. Without it you were... vulnerable, open, raw.
But she couldn't be late for the transit shuttle. And if she told anyone she lost her pill, there would be an inquiry. A dosage evaluation. Maybe even a Restrainment Order.
So Amira smoothed her grey school tunic, fastened the collar just below her jaw, and stepped into the grey light of the morning.
School was the same as always - quiet, clean, synchronized. Students walked in perfect formation. The hallway speakers hummed with a very soft tone every ten seconds to "reinforce neural stability". No one made eye contact. No one smiled.
Amira tried to breathe slowly. Tried to fake the calm.
But everything was louder today.
The humming. The clicking of shoes. The tapping of fingers against glass desks.
The soft intake of breath when a teacher walked by. It was like someone had turned the world's volume up, and it was screaming in whispers.
And then... it happened.
At exactly 11:06 a.m., while reviewing the history of great silence, a video played on the classroom screen - scenes from the war, cities burning, people screaming.
Amira's throat tightened.
She felt... something. Like the inside of her chest was folding on itself.
Her vision blurred.
A tear slipped from her eye.
Just one. Just one tear.
Silence.
Her classmates turned towards her in perfect unison - blank faces, tilted heads, watching. Her teacher paused the video.
"Amira Kalu", she said, voice flat. "You are... crying".
Amira wiped her cheek fast. Trying to breathe. Trying to lie.
"I-I don't know why. I think I have a dust allergy".
The teacher blinked slowly. "There is no dust in Eirene".
She going to report me.
I'm going to be marked for Recalibration.
Then - a voice. Quiet, behind her.
"She's fine", it said. "I saw the video too. It was graphic. Maybe it triggered a latent sensitivity".
She turned. The voice belonged to a boy - tall, dark curls, expression unreadable. His eyes locked with hers just enough to say something unspoken.
Careful.
The teacher paused. Then nodded slowly.
"Sensitivity. Noted. You will report for recalibration screening after school, Amira. Class dismissed".
As the students stood and filed out, the boy brushed past her barely whispering:
"You didn't take it, did you?"
Amira froze.
"What?"
He didn't look at her. Just kept walking.
"Meet me after curfew. Sector 9. By the old transmission tower. Don't bring your pill".
And just like that, he was gone.