The First Mistake

Opening Scene: The Council of Grammar

The year is 2118, in the fortified chambers of the Council of Grammar.

The room is enormous, circular, and filled with holographic texts floating midair. Every council member wears black robes embroidered with glowing punctuation marks—apostrophes, commas, semicolons—symbols of their power.

At the center, the Grand Grammatician, Lord Veynar, raises his staff, shaped like a giant fountain pen.

“The boy Kaien Reth…” Veynar says, his voice echoing with electronic distortion. “He entered the Forbidden Library. He has seen… the Third Sentence.”

Gasps ripple across the chamber. One councilwoman, marked with a silver colon on her forehead, slams her fist.

“That sentence must remain buried! Three versions mean three possible meanings. If the people learn this, they’ll question everything.”

Veynar’s eyes narrow.

“Then we will make him an example. The nation of New Lemika survives only because language is law. A single boy must not challenge the order of words.”

Scene 1: Kaien’s Sleepless Night

Back in his cramped apartment, Kaien stares at the forbidden book under dim candlelight. His mother coughs weakly in the next room—she works in the factories, punished with “sentence fines” whenever she slips in speech. Each fine costs food rations.

Kaien whispers to himself:

“If grammar is so powerful that one mistake destroyed the world, why should it belong to the Council alone?”

His hands tremble as he writes the Third Sentence on scrap paper:

“The citizens rights shall not be infringed.”

No apostrophe. No clarity. No law. Just chaos—or freedom.

Kaien suddenly laughs, quietly at first, then louder.

“What if mistakes aren’t flaws? What if… they’re weapons?”

Scene 2: School Punishment

The next morning, Kaien arrives late to the Academy. Professor Istria immediately notices.

“Kaien Reth,” she says, her monocle glowing red, “your uniform is unbuttoned. That is improper presentation. Improper presentation equals improper grammar of self. Fifty lines after class!”

Kaien smirks. “Maybe I’ll write them wrong.”

The class gasps. The room stiffens. No one ever jokes about mistakes. Professor Istria’s ruler cracks the desk.

“You dare mock the law of language?” she snarls. “Do you wish to meet the Erasers?”

The Erasers—government agents who silence those guilty of “linguistic treason.”

Kaien shrugs, but inside his heart pounds. He’s no longer just a boy. He’s carrying a secret that could shatter the Council.

Scene 3: The First Public Error

Later that day, in the crowded market district, Kaien makes his move.

He climbs atop a food stall, holding a stolen can of spray-paint. People glance at him nervously. The drones hover, ready to scan.

Kaien shouts:

“The citizens rights shall not be infringed!”

The crowd freezes. The sentence is wrong. Missing apostrophe.

A woman covers her child’s ears. A man drops his fruit basket. Drones blare alarms: “ILLEGAL SENTENCE DETECTED! ERROR BREACH!”

Kaien paints the Third Sentence across a steel wall, the glowing words flickering in the neon light.

“Look at it!” he yells. “Three versions exist! The Council lied to us. The Fall wasn’t just one mistake—it was hidden by layers of mistakes. If one error destroyed the old world, then another can destroy theirs!”

The people stare, trembling between terror and fascination. For the first time in their lives, someone weaponized a mistake.

Scene 4: The Erasers Arrive

Sirens howl. From the sky descend black-armored figures—the Erasers. Their helmets are shaped like blank pages, their arms equipped with ink-blades.

Their leader, Officer Strahm, speaks through a crackling speaker:

“Citizen Kaien Reth. You are guilty of Grammatical Treason. By decree of the Council of Grammar, your voice is forfeit.”

Kaien grips the book under his coat. “If my voice is forfeit… then let my mistakes speak!”

He tears a page from the forbidden book and throws it into the air. The Erasers freeze when they see it. The words float, glitching, unreadable. Citizens gasp.

Officer Strahm hesitates. For the first time, even the Enforcers don’t know how to correct it.

Scene 5: Seeds of Rebellion

Kaien flees through the alleys as chaos erupts. Some citizens shout in anger, demanding his arrest. Others whisper in awe, repeating the corrupted sentence like a chant:

“The citizens rights… the citizens rights…”

Kaien hides beneath an abandoned train station, catching his breath. His hands are stained with ink.

He hears footsteps. A girl emerges—Lyra, a sharp-eyed classmate who secretly admired Kaien’s defiance. She holds a small grammar drone she hacked to obey her.

“You’re insane,” Lyra whispers. “But… you’re right. I saw their faces. Even the Erasers didn’t know what to do.”

Kaien smirks. “Then let’s make more mistakes.”

For the first time, he isn’t alone. A rebellion is born—not with weapons, but with words.

Ending Scene: The Council’s Declaration

Back in the Council chamber, Lord Veynar slams his staff into the floor.

“This boy has defied us. He wields error as a weapon. If mistakes spread, our authority will collapse, just as the uSa collapsed a century ago.”

The council members bow their heads.

“Then,” Veynar declares, “we shall erase not only Kaien Reth, but every record of him, every word he speaks, every trace of his existence. He will become… ungrammatical.”

The episode ends with Kaien’s face flickering on surveillance screens across the city, marked with a red warning:

“ERROR: SUBJECT KA1-EN. ELIMINATE IMMEDIATELY.”

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