Field Log: Shyne Maris – Syros, Day 3
Chapter 12 – We Don’t Match, But We Align
I thought it would feel like a vacation.
Island sun. Cats. Maybe olives.
Instead… it felt like standing at the edge of a page that was never written in my voice.
Selene—my mother, not just the actress—told me the truth.
Or some of it.
That she wasn’t there enough. That she didn’t know what I was.
That she and Athros guessed, but were afraid to say it aloud.
Afraid to say I might not be entirely human.
(Imagine hearing that over tea.)
She meant well.
And I believed her.
But something inside me… sparked. Not metaphorically.
I glowed.
It wasn’t nerves. Or heatstroke.
It was me.
Then Ryze said it aloud:
“Synaptic Light Reflex.”
(He even abbreviated it. Of course he did.)
And I hated how calm he was.
How kind.
How prepared.
Like he’d known all along and just—waited.
He didn’t press me.
Just placed a hand on my shoulder like we weren’t on the edge of something we couldn’t unsee.
For a second, I thought I’d cry.
Then Luma jumped onto the table and stared him down like she wanted answers too.
Maybe she already had them.
She’s good at that.
We sat there, the three of us.
No explosions.
No code cracking.
Just… light.
And alignment.
If he had said the word “destiny,” I might’ve slapped him.
But he didn’t.
He just said,
“It’s quite a skill you have.”
And for the first time, I didn’t want to run from that.
I wanted to learn it.
—Shyne
—RYZE’S ADDENDUM:
“We don’t match.
That’s true.
But alignment?
That’s when every misfit variable finds its purpose—
and the system stabilizes beautifully.”
Selene’s Addendum:
“She was always radiant, even before I understood what that meant.
I thought I had more time—
to explain, to protect, to simply be there.
But she learned to glow without me.
And now… she’s learning to direct it.
If the horizon ever feared the dawn,
it was only because it knew how bright she’d become.”