Silence followed.
Not the calm kind.
Not the peaceful kind.
But something deeper.
Something… unnatural.
Nyxara stood at the center of it.
Unmoving.
Uncertain.
For the first time since entering the Origin
There was no immediate response.
No correction.
No voice.
That alone
Was wrong.
"…Nyxara," Cassian said quietly.
She didn't respond immediately.
Because she was still seeing it.
Everything.
Not just the space around them.
Not just the remnants of the shattered test.
But beyond that.
Far beyond.
The threads.
All of them.
Not individually.
Not in pieces.
But together.
Interconnected.
Endless.
And within them
She saw movement.
"…it's spreading," she whispered.
Cassian's voice tightened. "What is?"
Nyxara didn't look at him.
"Change."
Because the threads were no longer behaving the same way.
Where there had once been uniformity
There was now variation.
Subtle.
Small.
But real.
The alteration she made
The integration
It hadn't stayed contained.
