CHAPTER XXI - Before the Call

Night descended fully over Sector AURORA, and the hum of the city lowered to a near-breath, as if VIREON itself had paused—listening for something distant, something older than circuitry, older than design.

The great living towers dimmed into their nocturnal rhythm one after another, their translucent surfaces glowing softly beneath streams of moving energy that flowed through the city like blood through a sleeping organism. Across the suspended bridges and elevated pathways, the movement of units slowed until the entire sector seemed suspended between wakefulness and dream.

Far above, the atmospheric dome shimmered with pale auroras drifting slowly across its inner surface, casting waves of blue and gold across the city below. The light moved like memory through water.

And beneath all of it, hidden beneath architecture and harmony and the illusion of peace, something waited.

ELE–480 could not rest.