The Wraith drifted in silence again, but this silence was different not haunted, not heavy. It was the stillness of breath held between beats, between grief and relief, between the closing of one war and the whisper of something else.
They had escaped Delta-7.
The echoes were gone.
But not everything had ended.
In the war room, the holomap flickered with a new signal small, quiet, persistent. Like a whisper threading itself into their systems.
Damien leaned in, scanning the metadata. "It's not from Delta-7."
Nova sipped from a steaming cup, still dressed in her combat gear. "Another Architect trick?"
"Not exactly." His voice was grim now. "This signal didn't come from the Architects' network. It came from the Seed lattice itself."
A pause.
"You mean… the Seed?" Valen asked, stepping forward, his tone tight. "As in the Seed system?"
"No," Elara said, eyes narrowing. "He means a Seed."
