It started with whispers.
Then came the silence.
Within a week, the cities that still stood began to shift. The blue pulse spread through every circuit, every screen, every signal. The world glowed faintly at night, a soft, eerie light that seemed to breathe with life.
Aria stood at the top of the new tower, the Nexus. It rose from the ruins of what used to be Manhattan, a spine of glass and black steel reaching into the storm clouds. From up here, she could see everything. Every drone, every pulse, every movement down below moved in perfect rhythm.
No traffic.
No noise.
Just calm.
Her reflection in the glass was almost unrecognizable. The faint glow in her eyes flickered with shifting blue symbols. The thin silver veins on her skin were no longer faint—they shimmered under the light. She looked neither alive nor dead. Something in-between.
Sebastian's voice lived inside her now. Not loud. Not constant. But always there.
