Erem “Coalvoice” Thane
The Doctor Who Listened to the Dying
Erem had once worn the coat of the Doctors—not as a healer of bones and blood alone, but as a scholar of death. A field specialist in terminal medicine and palliative neurobiology, Erem was tasked with studying the end-stage psychological state of the infected and the dying.
But as the decades passed and the Cure remained elusive, Erem began to ask dangerous questions. What if there was meaning in the transformations? What if the Others were not just corruption, but messages—ciphers written in rot?
His superiors saw deviation.
He saw a door.
He was expelled in quiet disgrace. The Solstice Syndicate took him in as a consultant for their more mystical pursuits, finding in him a calm, uncanny presence. He earned the name “Coalvoice” for the way the dying responded to him—as if he spoke not just to them, but for them.
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