As the paradox attacks receded, a new signal arrived at the Sanctuary's hidden comms. It was on a secured Black-Ops frequency, one Echo recognized with a jolt.
It was from Kaelen.
The message was text-only, brief, and devastatingly frank.
"Sovereign. The Cage of Light project is green-lit. They will use the next major resonance to deploy it. It is a dimensional lockkey that will freeze you and your entire bond-network in a moment of crystallized time. They believe the Crystal's location is in your memories. They plan to dissect you forever. I am transmitting the schematic. Do not trust me. But use this. – K"
Attached were the full technical schematics for the "Cage of Light," a terrifying piece of Order technology that tapped into primordial chronon particles.
Betrayer or ally? Sleeper or defector? Kiera analyzed the data. "It's not a trap. The schematics are complete, including the harmonic dampening frequencies that would be its weaknesses. She's giving you the keys to her own side's most dangerous weapon."
"Why?" Ryn asked, suspicious.
"Because the Design overplayed its hand," Kiera said softly. "She was a Sleeper, her loyalty to the Design programmed. But watching you… fighting beside you… it created a cognitive dissonance. The Design's order to betray likely conflicted with a genuine loyalty she'd formed. Sleeper agents are meant to have no real attachments. You became an attachment. It broke her programming."
Echo felt a pang of complicated emotion. Kaelen had been their shadow, their judge, their betrayer. And now, perhaps, their first true convert from within the heart of the enemy.
He sent a one-word reply on the same frequency: "Acknowledged."
He didn't know if she was an ally. But she was now an asset. And in the shadow war they were fighting, that was enough.