years after the Great Release, the network received a message from outside humanity.
It came through the ghost protocols first. A presence in the network that wasn't human. Wasn't ghost. Wasn't Architect. Was something else entirely.
Sera felt it manifest during a routine council meeting. Felt reality bend around a consciousness that didn't fit any known pattern. Not invasive. Not threatening. Just... present. Waiting. Observing.
"Do you feel that?" Luna whispered through the Collective Network's connection to the council-space.
"Yes," River said from the Woven Network. She sounded fascinated rather than afraid. "It's not human. Not Earth-native. Not anything we've encountered before."
The presence solidified. Took form in network-space. Not a visual form—the network didn't work that way. But a presence-form. A sense of identity. A consciousness with boundaries and character and intention.
And it spoke.
