Adrian!” The sound didn’t finish; it broke halfway, like the room swallowed the rest before it could exist.
Aiden moved instantly, instinct more than thought, but there was nothing to grab. No body, no signal trace, no residual echo of where Adrian had stood a second before, only silence. Not empty silence. Processed silence.
Like something was still running even after everything had stopped.
Aiden’s eyes snapped across the room. The console flickered once, then stabilized. Too clean, too controlled.
Like it had never been interrupted at all.
"No," Aiden whispered. “That shouldn’t have executed a full transfer.”
The system responded immediately. “Anchor synchronization complete.”
The words were calm. Finally, unbothered by what they erased.
Aiden’s hand hovered over the console, th
