Remords: A City Split by Silence

Gavril in Remords

Once the pride of the Crainte region, Remords stood as a symbol of prosperity with not one, but two Solenoids pulsing at its heart. It thrived on trade and passage, its markets bustling, its soulever port busy with the arrivals of merchants, nobles, and wanderers alike. But that was before Anxiété—the towering city to the east—claimed the airways. With the construction of their own port, Anxiété siphoned away the lifeblood of Remords: movement. Commerce trickled. Visitors vanished. And the second Solenoid, no longer justifiable, was never replaced after its death.

Remords Soulever Port

A century has passed since Remords began to decline, but time has not softened the wound. The city remains split in two: the inhabited quarter clings to what remains of its fading dignity, while the other half—known grimly as Fin Fragile—lies abandoned, a wasteland of crumbling yellow brick, stained with water and grime. Entire avenues have collapsed into silence. Doors remain ajar to homes no one dares reclaim. Even in daylight, the wind seems to hush as it moves through its lifeless corridors.

Fin Fragile

Worse still, with the decay has come danger. In Remords, the number of dampened has quietly risen. These are the ones who have touched a Phase—and lived. But they do not live as they once did. They walk the streets with blank eyes, neither sorrowful nor joyous, stripped of what once made them human. Gray veins trace visibly across their skin like marbled ruin, and so they must live in disguise—gloved hands, covered necks, careful always to keep their marks hidden. They are not tolerated. Should a Résonateur arrive—should even a hint of suspicion fall—the penalty is final. Discovery is annihilation. And so they hide in plain sight, shadows of what once was, just like their city.

Dampened

Still, beauty flickers stubbornly in the dimmest corners. At Simone’s Finery, a modest dress shop near the old port, Gavril finds herself drawn to a simple cotton dress dyed deep charcoal. Its silver ivy embroidery winds delicately down its seams, and glossy silver buttons trail from neck to wrist. Simone scoffs at its plainness, waving off the piece as a relic of better times. But Gavril sees something more: immaculate detail, the quiet care of forgotten craftsmanship. She reaches for it—only to realize she has no argent.

Pastry Shop in Remords

Before the moment can sour, Deryn, bold and brash, steps forward and pays without hesitation. She shrugs it off with a smirk, but the gesture is not lost on Gavril. The two spend the day together, eating, laughing, sharing stories in the flickering shade of old awnings and rusted rails. For a time, Remords feels alive again. But even Deryn, for all her bravado, refuses to step foot in Fin Fragile. She spits when someone mentions the dampened, muttering that death would be kinder than becoming one of them.

But the city never forgets what it has become.

As twilight settles over the soulever port and shadows lengthen across the yellow bricks, something shifts. Laughter falters. The quiet grows heavy. And somewhere, just out of sight, the thin line between survival and suspicion is crossed—reminding all who remain that in Remords, nothing stays hidden forever.