Eight years after the Great Release, the network faced its most fundamental question yet.
Marcus was dying.
Not from disease or accident or anything preventable. He was ninety-three years old. He'd lived a long life—longer than most, longer than he'd expected when he'd first connected to the network decades ago. He'd seen ghosts become protocol, seen the Architects acknowledge them, seen children born into collective consciousness.
He'd seen enough.
"I don't want to become a ghost," he told Sera during a private conversation. Private in the sense that only the council could hear. True privacy didn't exist in the network anymore. "I've watched thousands of ghosts dissolve. Watched them choose to let go. I understand now why they do it. And I want that. I want to die completely. I want to end."
The words sent shockwaves through the council. Through the network. Through fifty thousand souls who'd built their entire existence around preserving consciousness after death.
