The nightmares started three days after the transfer.
Kaelen would close his eyes and see the intelligence. Not as light or code. As a face. His face. Older. Crueler. Smiling.
“You think you've won. You've only delayed me.”
He woke screaming.
Zara held him. “Same dream?”
“He's in my head. Not the implant. Not the code. Just... memories. Impressions.”
“The intelligence?”
“It's using the anchor. The connection between me and the crystals. It can't control me, but it can talk to me.”
“What does it want?”
“To make me afraid.”
---
Elara ran tests.
Kaelen sat in her clinic, wires attached to his skull. The screens showed his neural activity—erratic but stable.
“The intelligence is contained in the crystals. It has no way to escape. But the anchor—your consciousness is linked to the
