The spark grew.
It pulsed once slow, deliberate as if testing the boundaries of its own birth. Then again. Then again.
Each beat sent tremors through the Wraith, not physical but perceptual. Clocks jumped. Emotions spiked without cause. Damien began hearing voices from childhood he couldn't remember. Nova's vision blurred with the face of someone long dead.
Elara stood at the viewing deck, watching the light draw nearer, though the ship's sensors still insisted nothing was there.
"It's not approaching," she whispered.
Aeron stood beside her. "Then what is it?"
She turned to him, voice hushed. "It's remembering us into place."
In the war room, the crew gathered in tense silence.
Valen set his hands on the table. "We crossed the recursion boundary. Ended Seed Zero. And now something that shouldn't exist is not only still here but waking up."
