The transition from a planetary civilization to a galactic participant was not a matter of distance, but of **bandwidth**. To the people of Earth—now simply called "The First Hearth"—the sky was no longer a void of cold stars, but a vibrant tapestry of conversation. The Aethel-Core had matured. It was no longer a mere battery powering cities; it had become the **Loom**, a psychic and energetic infrastructure that allowed a human in the Iron Cities to feel the rhythmic tides of Europa’s oceans as if they were their own pulse.
But with the arrival of the Kalyth and the opening of the Jovian Threshold, a new friction emerged. It wasn't the violent friction of the Purists or the Silence of the old world. It was the friction of **Scale**.
Valerius and Sera, now the unofficial ambassadors of t
