The explanation for the 0.7-second gap finally arrived in Year 740 AF.
It was not a revelation handed down from above. It was discovered during a moment of absolute, terrifying system failure.
Zephyr was conducting a routine grid maintenance scan across the western agricultural sectors when the gap struck. It was Gap number eight.
This time, the sensory deprivation was violent.
[ADMINISTRATIVE ALERT] Cognitive buffer overload. Perception shunt initiated. Real-time loss: seven point two seconds.
Barely two seconds of his subjective, divine perception was wiped clean, replaced by absolute static. But down on the surface, over seven seconds of mortal time vanished into the void, a terrifying eternity in the context of an industrial society moving at the speed of steam and electricity.
But this time, when the grid slammed back into his consciousness, Zephyr didn't simply log the incident and move on. He didn't scan the border to see what he had missed. He chased the gap.
