They were impossible to describe.
Geometric shapes that existed in dimensions human minds couldn't process. Angles that hurt to perceive. Colors that had no names because they'd never existed in baseline reality. Sounds that were felt rather than heard. Smells that conveyed meaning instead of scent.
The Architects weren't beings. They were functions. Rules made manifest. Reality's operating system taking physical—or non-physical—or post-physical—form.
COMPREHENSIVE SCAN INITIATED. ALL DEVIATIONS FROM BASELINE PARAMETERS WILL BE CATALOGUED. VIOLATIONS WILL BE CORRECTED. ACCEPTABLE EVOLUTION WILL BE INCORPORATED.
The voice wasn't sound. It was pure meaning downloaded directly into consciousness. All one hundred fifty-nine bonded souls heard it simultaneously. Felt it in their bones. In their atoms. In the spaces between their thoughts.
