Location: Solara's imperial sanctum.
Suspended data crystals humming like beehives litter the hall.
Six archivists confront Karl and demand access to the Absurdium Core.
Because the system is linked to his neurology, he won't give over raw data.
Lyra, standing next to him, understands that the empire will eventually deconstruct him in order to study it unless someone interfaces from the inside.
Key visual: Karl's eyes flash with white light from the crystals while the Core silently displays probability graphs on his HUD.
Lyra speaks first in the stillness of the lab after the meeting.
Lyra: "They'll be afraid of you if they can't read you." Allow me to serve as your layer of translation.
"You'd risk annihilation," Karl said.
"Call it participation," said Lyra.
A consensual merger utilizing Aether-frequency resonance—half technology, half metaphysics—is the strategy she lays out. The Core's observation lattice would house her awareness, which could intercept outside scans and provide Karl with contextual information. Wherever his gaze went, she would be there.
Karl sets neural anchors and calibrates confinement fields.
System flashes are momentary:
[PROTOCOL MERGE: 0.01%]
Integrity of the host: steady.
Verified secondary mind signature.
With the exception of the blue light lines that map their bodies, the room grows darker.
Karl pauses, then gives a nod.
Karl: "You made this decision on your own?"
"The only real data is choice," said Lyra.
Light bends. Around her, every photon in the lab forms geometric petals.
She gives him a single smile before her outline fragments into tiny particles that are drawn to him by his intense stare.
He gasps due to a barrage of sensory information, including memories, mathematics, and empathy, rather than pain.
[ESTABLISHED COGNITIVE LINK] Online Auxiliary Consciousness.
A single fresh signature nestled inside his own is displayed when the monitors flatline and subsequently reboot.
He presses the console to steady himself. Every edge feels crisper, the room feels bigger.
The voice is made of light in the air and is not heard.
Internally, Lyra says, "I see what you see."
Karl: "Then use your judgment."
A faint shadow, composed of luminous equations, glides half a beat behind his reflection when he looks into a mirror. She just watches without saying anything more.
[PRIMARY STATUS]
LYRA is a symbiotic entity.
Function: Moral echo, emotional balance, and contextual intelligence.
Karl is standing above the midnight skyline of Solara on the balcony.
Around his field of vision, stars gently curve; the Core's presence is serene and well-balanced.
He murmurs:
"Sophia, I'll see the universe twice, once for us both, because my eyes now bear witness."
Unaware that the observer they sought to dominate now contains two brains rather than one, the wind sweeps the words away as the empire's towers pulse like neurons.
End-beat: Lyra is the only one who observes the abnormality as a faint glow appears over the horizon.
Internal Lyra: "Something keeps watch."
Karl: "Let's start by observing it first."