# Chapter 29: The Technomancer's Signal
The words hung in the air of the cavern, a death sentence pronounced on a place of healing. Aethelburg General Hospital. Elara was there. The thought struck Konto like a physical blow, a spike of ice through his already fragile core. He pushed himself up from the cot, the room tilting violently. The broth Gideon had given him felt like lead in his stomach. "No," he rasped, the sound scraping his throat. "He can't."
"He can, and he is," Liraya said, her voice a blade of cold fury. She stood rigid, her hands clenched into fists at her sides, the blue light of her Aspect tattoos flickering violently down her arms. "It's not just a weapon. It's a targeted strike. A focusing lens for all that energy. He's going to turn the ley line network into a massive, city-wide resonator, and point it directly at the hospital."
Gideon moved to the holographic display, his massive frame casting a long shadow over the flickering countdown. The numbers were stark, a relentless march toward zero. Less than twenty-four hours. "The hospital is built on a minor nexus point," the ex-Templar stated, his voice grim with certainty. "A place where the veil between the conscious and subconscious worlds is naturally thin. It's why it's a center of healing. But in the hands of a monster like Moros... it's a gateway. He won't just destroy it. He'll use it to pull thousands of sleeping, vulnerable minds into his nightmare. To fuel his ascension with their terror."
The scale of it was suffocating. Konto felt the static at the edge of his vision surge, the whispers of the dreamscape clawing at the edges of his sanity. He saw Elara's face, pale and still in her hospital bed, a silent sacrifice in a madman's apotheosis. He couldn't let that happen. He wouldn't. "We have to stop it," he said, forcing the words out through a wave of nausea. "How?"
"Edi might have an idea," Gideon said, turning away from the screen. "He's the one who found the signal. He's been tracking Moros's data manipulations for weeks, trying to find a pattern. He's a technomancer. One of the best. The Wardens drove him underground for poking his nose where it didn't belong." He gestured toward a dark, uninviting tunnel mouth at the far end of the cavern. "His workshop is this way. Be warned. He's... paranoid. And he doesn't trust anyone."
The journey through the foundations was a trek through Aethelburg's forgotten nervous system. Gideon led them with an unerring certainty, his heavy boots crunching on ancient gravel and broken cobbles. The air grew thick with the smell of ozone and hot metal, a sharp contrast to the damp earth of the caverns. Liraya supported Konto, his arm draped over her shoulders, his weight a testament to his depleted state. Every step was an effort, the world blurring at the periphery. He focused on the rhythmic tap-tap-tap of her boots on the stone, a metronome counting down to a disaster he felt powerless to prevent.
They arrived at a reinforced steel door, scarred with acid burns and pockmarked by what looked like bullet holes. A tangle of jury-rigged wires and scavenged sensors covered its surface, a single, glowing red light blinking like a malevolent eye. Gideon didn't knock. He placed his palm flat against the door, and a low hum emanated from it. The red light flickered, turned green, and the door hissed open, revealing a space that was part workshop, part nest, and part fortress.
The air inside was electric. The smell of solder and burnt-out capacitors was overwhelming, layered with the sweet, cloying scent of energy drinks. Every available surface was covered in scavenged tech: dismantled Arcane Warden drones, gutted data-slates, coils of fiber-optic cable snaking across the floor like glowing serpents. In the center of the controlled chaos, a young man with wild, dark hair and eyes that darted around like trapped flies was hunched over a holographic interface. His fingers, stained with grease and ink, flew across the keys, manipulating streams of code that shimmered in the air before him. Aspect tattoos, a complex web of circuitry patterns, glowed with a faint, steady white light on his forearms.
"Edi," Gideon rumbled, his voice calm but firm.
The young man flinched, spinning around in his chair. A small, handheld disruptor was in his hand before Konto could even register the movement. "Gideon! I told you, no surprises! My proximity sensors are supposed to be infallible!" His voice was high, tight with a perpetual anxiety. His eyes, wide and magnified by a pair of cracked lenses, flicked from Gideon to Liraya, then settled on Konto. The disruptor wavered. "Who are they? Wardens? Syndicate?"
"They're allies, Edi," Gideon said, stepping into the room. The ex-Templar's presence seemed to suck some of the frantic energy out of the air. "They know about the signal. They know about Moros."
Edi's eyes narrowed. He didn't lower the disruptor. "Everyone knows about Moros. He's the benevolent dictator who keeps the lights on. What do you know about the signal?" The challenge was clear, a test.
Liraya stepped forward, her posture radiating an authority that cut through the clutter and paranoia. "We know it's not a signal. It's a targeting system. A weapon. And we know its target is Aethelburg General." She let the name hang in the air, watching the technomancer's reaction.
Edi's face went pale. The frantic energy in his eyes was replaced by a dawning horror. He slowly lowered the disruptor, his gaze drifting back to his own holographic display, where the countdown continued its inexorable countdown. "The hospital... I didn't... I just saw the energy spike, the routing protocol. I thought it was a test. A stress test on the grid." He sank back into his chair, the full weight of his discovery crashing down on him. "Oh, void. He's going to burn it all down."
"He's going to do worse than that," Konto said, his voice weak but clear. He pushed himself away from Liraya, standing on his own two feet, though his legs trembled with the effort. "He's going to use it as a beacon. To pull every mind in that hospital into the dreamscape. To turn them into fuel."
Edi stared at him, his technomancer's senses clearly assessing Konto's condition. "You're... corrupted. Deeply. How are you even conscious?"
"I'm stubborn," Konto replied, a ghost of his usual cynical smirk touching his lips. "Now, you said you've been tracking this. Can you stop it?"
"Stop it?" Edi let out a short, sharp laugh that was devoid of humor. "It's being routed through the primary ley line conduits under the Magisterium's direct control. It's like trying to stop a tidal wave with a bucket. The encryption is... it's alive. It adapts. It's woven with Reality Weaving. I can't just cut the power. The feedback loop would probably vaporize half the Undercity." He turned back to his console, his fingers flying again. "But maybe... maybe I don't have to stop the wave. Maybe I just have to change where it breaks."
Liraya leaned over his shoulder, her eyes tracing the cascading lines of code. "What are you thinking?"
"The energy is being amplified by the city's network," Edi explained, his voice gaining speed and confidence as he fell into his element. "It's a closed loop. But every loop has a node. A point of vulnerability. The Resonator Moros is using... it has to have a physical interface. A master control. If I can find that, and if I can inject a counter-frequency... I might be able to create a cascade failure. Not stop the ritual, but... shatter it. Scatter the energy harmlessly."
"Where would this master control be?" Gideon asked, his hand resting on the pommel of his war hammer.
"It has to be at the epicenter," Liraya answered, her mind already connecting the dots. "The Aegis Spire. Moros's sanctum."
"Of course it is," Edi muttered, typing furiously. "Getting in there is a suicide run. The security is legendary. But the signal... the command structure... it's not just a broadcast. It's a two-way handshake. He's sending out the command, but he's also receiving telemetry. Status updates." His eyes widened. "That's it. That's the back door."
He manipulated the hologram, isolating a thin, almost invisible stream of data flowing counter to the main energy surge. It was a whisper compared to the roar. "He's monitoring the energy levels in real-time. And he's using a high-level encryption key. One that changes every microsecond. But if I can ride the telemetry back... if I can fool his system into thinking my query is a status report from the grid... I might be able to get a peek inside his sanctum. See what he's seeing."
The workshop fell silent, the only sound the frantic tapping of Edi's keys and the low hum of a dozen cooling fans. Konto watched, his own mind a battlefield of pain and fear, but a new plan was forming. A desperate, insane plan. "Do it," he said. "Whatever you need to do, do it."
Edi didn't need to be told twice. He pulled a pair of worn data-gloves over his glowing tattoos, his movements becoming a blur of precision. The holographic display before him dissolved into a storm of raw data, a chaotic vortex of numbers and symbols. "It's fighting me," he grunted, beads of sweat forming on his brow. "The encryption is... it's like it knows I'm here. It's actively trying to lock me out."
Liraya raised her hands, her own Aspect flaring to life. "Let me help." She closed her eyes, murmuring an incantation under her breath. A fine mist of blue energy coalesced around her hands, which she then gently placed on Edi's shoulders. The technomancer flinched, then relaxed as the arcane energy flowed into him. His own white tattoos began to glow brighter, the circuitry patterns intertwining with the blue mist.
"What are you doing?" he breathed, his eyes still fixed on the data-storm.
"Syncing my Aspect with yours," Liraya said, her voice strained with concentration. "My Weaving can't break the code, but it can stabilize the connection. Give you a clearer channel. Think of me as your lightning rod."
The data-storm on the screen began to calm, the chaotic swirls resolving into distinct, layered structures. "I see it," Edi whispered, his voice filled with awe. "The core protocol. It's beautiful." He plunged his hands into the hologram, his fingers manipulating the constructs of light. "Okay, you overconfident bastard... let's see what you're really planning."
He worked for what felt like an eternity. The countdown on the main screen ticked past the eighteen-hour mark. Konto felt his strength fading, the static in his vision growing into a buzzing swarm of black flies. He leaned against a workbench littered with drone parts, the smell of burnt plastic filling his senses. He had to hold on. For Elara. For the thousands of others who had no idea they were on the verge of becoming monsters.
"Almost there," Edi grunted. "I'm through the outer shell. The inner sanctum... it's protected by a psychic key. A living password."
Konto's head snapped up. "A psychic key?"
"Yeah. It's a pattern of neural impulses. A specific emotional signature. I can't replicate it. It's like trying to fake a soul."
"I can," Konto said, pushing himself off the workbench. Every nerve screamed in protest. "I'm a dreamwalker. That's my language. Let me in."
Edi looked to Gideon, who gave a single, solemn nod. The ex-Templar stepped beside Konto, a steadying hand on his arm. "Easy, son. Don't burn yourself out."
Konto didn't answer. He placed his hand on the holographic interface, his mind reaching out. He didn't try to force his way in. He remembered the feel of Moros's mind from their brief, psychic clash in the ritual chamber. The cold, absolute certainty. The suffocating sense of order. The profound, terrifying loneliness at the core of his power. He projected that feeling. The coldness. The order. The loneliness.
The data-storm on the screen recoiled, then parted. A new window opened, a live feed from within the Aegis Spire. It wasn't a visual feed. It was a schematic, a three-dimensional model of pure energy. At its center, a pulsating orb of black and violet light was growing, feeding on streams of data that flowed in from all over the city. And wrapped around the core of the orb was a single, repeating command, now fully decrypted.
It wasn't just a command. It was a declaration.
**INITIATE PHASE TWO**
Beneath the words, a new line of text resolved itself from the static, a single, chilling destination for the impending energy surge: Aethelburg General Hospital.
Gideon's gaze was fixed on the flickering screen, his jaw set like stone. "Phase Two," he muttered, the words heavy with dread. "He has a name for his blasphemy."
Liraya leaned closer, her mind racing through the possibilities. "It means the sacrifice we saw wasn't the end. It was just the beginning."
Edi, his fingers flying across a holographic keyboard, shook his head. "It's not just a signal. It's a broadcast. A targeted one. The energy signature isn't just building at the Spire… it's being routed. Amplified. He's not just preparing a ritual. He's about to turn the entire city's ley line network into a weapon."
On the screen, beneath the countdown, a new line of text resolved itself from the static, a single, chilling destination for the impending energy surge: Aethelburg General Hospital.