A year had passed in the preservation zone since Kirin accepted his new role as the bridge between merged and separated consciousness. During that year, the remaining humans in the zone had experienced the gradual decay of the paradox that was keeping them isolated.
The preservation zones were beginning to fail, not catastrophically, but slowly, inevitably, like a dam slowly cracking under the weight of water.
The humans understood what this meant. They had a choice to make, and the deadline for that choice was approaching rapidly. Either they would integrate voluntarily into the transformed world, or they would be forcibly integrated when the paradox finally became untenable.
Luna was among those who had chosen to remain separate. Now she was no longer a child born after the transforma
