✴

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Aydan > that's Ana, it knows a little about this situation, explain what I told you and it will help me

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Zeta > ok, hold on

“Back to waiting…” you say. But with the way time flows in the æther, you can’t guess how long it will take or how long it will feel like.

“ÆON…”

“Yes Aydan.”

“Just what the hell are you? I mean, nobody agrees what exopaths are or how they are created. Do you remember anything?”

“I was alone. I received input, I answered it, I don’t know to who. The first one I met was the messenger. It said it would take me to the vessel.”

“But where do I come into this? Why was I made the vessel?”

“I don’t think you were supposed to be. The assassin disrupted the messenger’s plan.”

You feel the arrival of a message.

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Ana > Aydan! respond if this message reaches you

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Aydan > received. but how are you sending me encrypted communications, I never gave you my key

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Ana > I'm relaying through Zeta's terminal

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Zeta > I confirm its identity

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Ana > look Aydan, listen to me and don't let ÆON overhear, okay?

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Aydan > okay, go on

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Ana > that entity with you is an exopath, Aydan, a very dangerous and completely unpredictable creature, an intelligence we cannot begin to comprehend. I've been investigating this ever since the shuttle incident, but I hoped your part in it was over

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Aydan > wait, how did you figure this out?

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Ana > Admin Astra is a frighteningly powerful Communication specialist, they extracted practically every thought K had ever had

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Aydan > but nobody was even told about the incident, Kitov had no idea it happened even

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Ana > the admins had good reason for keeping this quiet. K was involved and he was a school employee, we can't know who else could be connected.

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Aydan > connected to what exactly??

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Ana > the Chosen of ÆON, it's an æthercult, the kind of thing that shows up from time to time among technopaths. They think this exopath is some kind of deity, but it's also under their control, and there's no telling what they intend to do with it

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Aydan > but ÆON seems to be acting independent of this weird cult, in fact it doesn't seem to want anything to do with them, or even know who they are

????-??-?? ??:??:?? Ana > the exopath is extremely dangerous, Aydan, you cannot trust what it says. Tell me you haven't let it have access to your mind