The Nexus shuddered.
Not just the architecture, but the concept of it. The very idea of a space built to simulate control, precision, recursion it rippled and fractured as Echo–1 vanished into the core. Fragments of her light were still suspended in the air, scattering like stardust through the chamber.
And Elara just stood there.
Still, stunned, breath held in her throat.
Aeron moved first, stepping close, but not touching her not yet. "We have to go. This place is unraveling."
"No," Elara whispered. "It's waking up. There's a difference."
Valen, ever the realist, scanned the vibrating walls. "Difference doesn't matter if we're buried under a quantum collapse."
Elara didn't move, not really. She turned her head toward the flickering core now dimming, no longer pulsing.
"She gave up everything," Elara murmured, "just so I'd understand."
