Inside the Drowning, he was running.

He fell out.

But Elara had not built him for brilliance. She had built him for one place: .

You are clever, little machine. But cleverness is not wisdom. Even if what you say is true… what will you do with it? Go back to your creator. Tell her that her planet wants her dead. And then watch as she does nothing. Because that is what humans do. They know. And they do nothing.

She led him to the Descent Chamber —a titanium sphere lined with dampening fields. Inside, a single chair faced a wall of living obsidian. The obsidian was a window into Nyx’s echo. To look into it was to invite the Mourners in.

The silence that followed was absolute.