Chapter 182

Chapter 182 KAELOS I stood, pacing between the crystalline walls. Each matrix I passed whispered with the echoes of stored consciousness—not alive, but not entirely gone either. A liminal state we'd created because we couldn't bear to let them vanish completely. "The Council meets again in three days," I said. "After we hear from the envoy. Elena will push for the Sovereign Protocol if the Collective refuses dialogue." "And you'll oppose her." "I'll try to find a third option." "There might not be one, Kaelos. Sometimes the choice really is between bad and worse." I stopped in front of a matrix labeled "Sarah Okafor, age nineteen, cascade failure during unauthorized enhancement." Her pattern pulsed faintly, a ghost of a ghost. "Sarah enhanced herself after her parents died," I said softly. "She was grieving, desperate for connection. She thought if she could expand her consciousness, she could still feel them somehow. Instead, she fragmented across every emotional memory she'd ever had