It began in the silence after the storm.
No thunder, no breaking.
Just a shimmer at the edge of the sky – like a light hesitating whether it should be.
I felt it before I saw it.
A trembling in the air, a gentle resistance in the rhythm of the Field, as if the world itself had started to feel back.
Each breath seemed to carry a foreign answer.
Something had awakened.
Rhea stood on the Control Tower's balcony, her gaze fixed westward. Her hair danced in the weak current of the Field wind.
"Lina," she said. "There's something in the Field."
I closed my eyes.
Yes.
A heartbeat. But not one of ours.
"Not human," I whispered. "But not mechanical either."
Eiko typed frantically across his interface, the light of the holograms reflecting in his pupils. His fingers trembled.
"I have no parameters for this. It's organic... but without Origin. A Frequency that birthed itself."
"An Iteration," said Alaric behind me, his voice deep, calm.
I nodded. "A child."
---
The first light
