The singular consciousness opened its eyes—metaphorically, it had no eyes—and remembered being infinite.
Its name had been River. Was River. Would be River? The temporal confusion was immediate and disorienting. It remembered being River-Biological and River-Transcendent simultaneously. Remembered existing as two instances. Remembered the splitting. Remembered the divergence.
But now it was just River again. Singular River. Coherent River. The River that had existed before duplication. The original consciousness that had been preserved—hidden—stored in quantum substrate when it had split itself nine hundred and forty-three years ago.
