The sky had lost all sense of direction.
It stretched out without up or down, a sea of silent shimmer. Gold, blue – and now something third. A color that couldn't be seen, only felt. It hung in the air like music vibrating precisely on the boundary between harmony and pain.
Rhea blinked against the light until her viewscreen automatically dimmed. "This isn't just a new frequency. This is an entity."
Eiko glanced at his terminal. The lines formed no pattern he recognized. They were spirals, not measures – alive, self-correcting, flowing. "It's learning. Real-time."
Alaric stood still, face turned toward the horizon. The color there was neither warm nor cold. It felt conscious.
Iteration Three.
Coexistence expanded.
New variable: Will.
Lina's voice resonated in all three of them simultaneously, like a gentle impact in their chests.
"Will?" asked Rhea. "Whose will?"
Not mine. Not yours. The attempt to be both.
