Exile of Words

Opening Scene: Fleeing South

The screen opens on a stormy night. Kaien and Lyra ride inside a rusted freight train heading south. The neon glow of Edraston fades behind them, replaced by endless desert.

Kaien presses his forehead to the glass, watching the horizon blur. His face is still plastered across surveillance screens back north, but here in the borderlands, the signals are weak, the Council’s grip less absolute.

Lyra whispers:

“North Mexico isn’t safe either. They’ve abandoned order there… no Council, no law. You won’t be welcomed. You’ll be… unwanted.”

Kaien doesn’t answer. His hand rests on the forbidden book in his lap, its glow faint but steady. He knows the truth—there is no “old world” left to return to. Every land is broken, rewritten by mistakes and corrections.

Scene 1: Entering North Mexico

The train screeches to a halt at a ruined station. The sign above it is shattered, the letters rearranged into nonsense. Kaien and Lyra step out into the dust.

North Mexico is nothing like Edraston. Here, cities have collapsed into scattered settlements. Rusted towers lean against the desert winds, covered in graffiti—scribbles of failed words, dialects no one remembers.

As they walk into the settlement of San Huelga, locals glare at them. A woman spits at the ground. A man mutters, “Another Errorist, bringing the Council’s hunters to us.”

Children throw stones, shouting, “Unwanted! Unwanted!”

Kaien doesn’t flinch. He has been branded an Error before. But here, in a land where the old world never existed, his cause means nothing. His rebellion is foreign.

Lyra tugs his sleeve. “Kaien… they don’t care about the Council here. To them, you’re just trouble.”

Scene 2: The Marketplace of Broken Words

San Huelga’s market is loud, filled with traders yelling in half-languages, mixing broken English with fragments of other tongues. Sentences don’t make sense; grammar is ignored.

Kaien listens, fascinated. “They live without rules,” he whispers. “Without the Council, without corrections. Just… words.”

Lyra shakes her head. “No, Kaien. They’re not free. They’re forgotten. To them, language isn’t law—it’s rubble. Nobody trusts anyone’s words here. They live day by day, unwanted by the world.”

A merchant overhears and sneers. “You think you’re special, boy? You’re not. You’re a walking plague. Wherever you go, hunters will follow. We don’t want your mistakes here.”

Kaien’s jaw tightens, but he says nothing.

Scene 3: The Attack

Night falls. Kaien and Lyra rest in an abandoned shack on the edge of San Huelga. Suddenly, torches flare outside. The locals surround the shack, armed with rusted blades and makeshift guns.

An old man steps forward. His voice is rough, but steady.

“We’ve heard what you are. The Council hunts you. If they come here, we’ll all suffer. Leave—or die.”

Lyra grabs Kaien’s arm. “We can’t fight them all—”

Kaien steps out, the forbidden book in his hands. The crowd recoils at the faint glow. He raises his voice, defiant:

“You call me unwanted because I carry mistakes. But your whole world is unwanted! You live in ruins because there is no old world left. It was destroyed, rewritten. You hide in silence, but I’ll use errors to make something new!”

The crowd murmurs angrily. Rocks are thrown. One strikes Kaien’s shoulder, drawing blood. He refuses to fall.

Scene 4: The Proofreader’s Shadow

Far above, in the Council’s chamber, Lord Veynar watches the scene through a projection.

“The boy spreads his poison even in Mexico,” Veynar says coldly. “He must not be allowed to gain followers there.”

From the shadows, the Proofreader kneels. His quill burns with white fire.

“I will correct him. No matter where he runs, no matter what mistake he hides behind… I will make him nothing.”

The Council bows their heads as the Proofreader steps into the desert night.

Scene 5: The Stranger

Back in San Huelga, the mob disperses after Kaien refuses to fight back. Bleeding and exhausted, he collapses in the sand outside the shack.

Lyra kneels beside him, worried. “They’ll never accept you. Maybe nowhere will. You’re fighting for a world that doesn’t even exist anymore.”

Before Kaien can reply, a cloaked stranger approaches. His face is hidden, but his voice is calm.

“You speak of errors like weapons. Dangerous words, boy. But maybe… they’re the only kind left.”

He tosses Kaien a scrap of paper. On it are words—twisted, broken, but alive.

Kaien stares at it. “You… you know about mistakes?”

The stranger nods. “North Mexico doesn’t want you. But I do. There are others like me, waiting. Outcasts. Unwanted. If you’re brave enough, you’ll find us.”

The stranger vanishes into the desert, leaving only the words behind.

Ending Scene

Kaien lies back, staring at the stars above the endless desert. His voice, quiet but steady, closes the episode:

“The world says I’m unwanted. Maybe that’s true. But if the old world is gone, then I’ll write a new one… with errors carved into its heart.”

The screen fades to black with the words:

TO BE CONTINUED…

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