The moment they returned from Virek's Reach, the weight of the galaxy seemed heavier.
Not because of the damage they had witnessed—but because of the questions they had returned with.
What were the Inversion Wells?Why did they seem intelligent?Who had seeded the belief systems that created them?
Kairos didn't sleep for three days.
He reviewed every fragment of data the expedition brought back—emotional echoes, mirrored glyphs, inverted contract samples, and damaged probe memory cores. The corruption had a language. Not quite readable… but felt.
"It's like someone rewrote meaning," Arin said quietly, curled up beside a console. "Every word, every transaction—they don't make sense unless you already believe in them. That's cult-like conditioning on a galactic scale."
Kairos nodded.
And that's when the message came.
An Invitation in Silence
