Chapter Thirty-Eight: The First Correction
The Architects did not strike in anger.
They corrected.
The anomaly began in the Lathus Verge—a minor system, barely strategic, chosen precisely because it should have survived. Population stable. Resources balanced. No Awakened concentration. No military significance.
A perfect control.
The Erebus was three jumps away when the first alert came through.
Dray froze mid-calculation. “Nova… probability just collapsed.”
Kael frowned. “Collapsed how?”
Dray’s voice thinned. “There were twelve million possible futures for Lathus thirty seconds ago. Now there are… three.”
Nova felt it before the sensors finished screaming. A pressure behind her eyes. A tightening in the Spiral scars—like a hand closing.
“Put it on screen,” she said.
The stars o
