Chapter 179

Chapter 179 SERAPHINA The silence that followed Kaelos's words wasn't empty. It hummed with something fragile and new—like the moment before dawn when darkness begins to suspect its own ending. I watched the young woman who had challenged him settle back into the circle, her resonance still fractured but no longer thrashing against itself. Around her, the others sat in various states of exhaustion and wariness, their neural fields creating a chaotic tapestry of color and static. Some had been awake for days. Others had burned through their stabilizers in fear or defiance, leaving their consciousness raw and exposed. Kaelos remained standing, his presence steady—not imposing, but solid. A fixed point in a room full of drift. A boy near the back spoke up, his voice hoarse. "The Pure Resonance Collective says you're trying to homogenize us. That your scaffolds will erase what makes us... us." Kaelos didn't flinch. "They're afraid," he said simply. "And fear makes us see chains where there