The connection didn't return the following week.
Nor the week after.
Damon stopped noticing its absence long before Ester stopped measuring it. She still performed occasional checks because, in her own words, "not feeling any problems isn't the same as confirming that no problems exist," a statement Damon decided not to argue with because he already knew exactly where that conversation would end. The structure near the base of his spine remained physically identifiable for some time, but its activity decreased so gradually that there was no specific moment that could be called its closure. During one examination, it still responded almost imperceptibly to mechanical stimuli; during the next, there was no longer enough of a response for Ester to distinguish it from normal variations in the surrounding tissue. Three days later, not even Aria could detect any functional reaction without resorting to methods Damon wasn't willing to authorize.
