Chapter 6 Summary

In Introductory Cybersecurity class, Aydan again faced hir frequent training partner, 7☆, who ze hasn’t managed to beat even once, but now at least seemed to be tiring her out a little. Aydan overheard other candidates’ rumors about 7, but considered them at best half-truths.

After an exhausting training session, Aydan went to meet with ÆON Club to plan their next move. But while Aydan, Zeta, Akiko, and ÆON deliberated how to best approach the delicate matter of convincing Synth to aid them, Synth appeared before their eyes, having been cloaked in a technopathic echo making them invisible to the others’ senses on the surface. After demonstrating their ability to overpower even all three of them together, they told Aydan to back off and stop spying on them.

Taking the chance to question them for a moment, Aydan learned from Synth about NULL Sector, the æthercult led by Unas, which is trying to find and destroy ÆON. Synth said their allegiance is to the Admins, and they were merely a spy in NULL Sector, but they aren’t willing to let Aydan come to harm. Aydan asked why they still consider ÆON such a danger, and Synth said it would best be explained off of TLA, back home on the Moon during mid-term break.

Satisfied with a temporary truce, they parted ways with Synth, and Aydan resolved to focus on the upcoming mid-term exam for now. Later that night, sie met with Zeta for a training session in Obfuscation. Zeta took fær to the top of the Evocation School building, where there is a microgravity training room. There it subjected nym to an illusion, which ey failed to see through.

After training, Zeta took Aydan out through a maintenance hatch to the outside of the training room situated in the center of the colony’s cylinder. It was a beautiful view, but Aydan soon suffered decompression sickness due to improperly entering the low-pressure environment at the center of the colony. Zeta took sier to the medical center.