Thalyn opened her eyes to latent power.
The chamber’s faint glow pulsed like a giant breath, ancient machines exhaling quiet light across the smooth stone.
She stayed still in the throne, no whiplash this time, no vertigo in her eyes, no spasm in her legs. She drew a slow breath. The air smelled faintly metallic, with an undertone of ozone, clean, filtered by systems older than memory.
A bright flash caught her eye.
Dr. Elara Voss stood nearby, bent slightly at the waist as she scanned a big shard of crystalline mineral with her medical tool. It pulsed with brilliant turquoise light, casting refracted sparks across her skin like water reflecting flame. A rare smile spread across her face as she studied the readouts on her scanner.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” she murmured, running a thumb along the smooth facet. “This is refined elegance.”
Thalyn stepped closer, eyes narrowing at the glow. “That's a poetic way of saying it’s valuable, or should I be worried you’re falling in love with a rock?”
Elara chuckled. “Both. But thalorite’s more than just shiny. In the right lab, it becomes SynVita, the only compound that lets your body accept our crude cybernetic tech without chewing itself apart.”
That caught Thalyn’s attention. She flexed a leg, feeling the familiar resistance in her joints. “You’re saying without that stuff, my legs would’ve turned on me?”
Elara shot her a sidelong glance. “We made those beauties with spit and wishful thinking, so yes, they need it. If they were true augmented limbs, courtesy of Elders, they would be perfect, seamless. We just bolt metal to meat and hope the stitches hold.”15Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmmtiz3ZpzA
“I remember taking something for a while,” Thalyn mused. “Thought it was for the infection.” A grin. “So, what does SynVita actually do? Make your limbs behave?”
“In the best case,” Elara said, holding the crystal up like it was sacred, “it suppresses rejection. Calms the immune system. Aligns neuro-feedback loops. Helps the body recognize the tech as part of itself, not a threat. Without it? The whole system crashes. Mind-console feedback spirals. Twitching, hallucinations. Sometimes your own heart forgets whose side it’s on.”
“Sounds exciting.”
“Oh, and this drug is addictive,” she added, offhand. “Synth’d stuff circulates on the black market. Called Ghostglow. Street kids jab it between spine ports just to feel 'connected.’ For a few hours, they say the world hums.”
Thalyn gave a low whistle. “And then?”
“Then the world keeps humming, even when they’re not there anymore.”
Thalyn tilted her head. “You ever use Ghostglow?”
Elara didn’t answer for a moment. Then, with a faint smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes: “I’ve treated people who did.”
She set the crystal down, the glow reflecting in her violet eyes. “Thalorite can be gift, or a curse. Depends who’s holding it.”
Thalyn nodded slowly. “Like everything else.”
Across the chamber, Korr Draven muttered something to himself and attempted to jam two silver relics together at an angle that clearly didn’t match. One let out a sharp zap of protest. Korr yelped and jerked his hand back, sucking his knuckle and glaring at the artifact like it had insulted his lineage.
“Stubborn little bastard,” he growled, rubbing his hand and peering at the pieces again. “They’re meant to interface. The resonance is perfect. Something’s missing.”
The clank of heavy boots echoed into the chamber.
Commander Jaxon strode through the archway, a broad container slung over his shoulder, half his face streaked with dust. He set the crate down with a grunt beside the mineral shelf and popped the latches with his cybernetic arm. Inside, raw stone glittered with veins of deep red-black, unrefined thalorite, humming faintly.
“Whole nest of it,” he said. “Deep fissure below the cliffs. Nearly cooked my scanner from the heat coming off it.” He scanned the place. “Everyone alive?”
“More or less,” Korr muttered without looking up.
Jaxon nodded toward Thalyn, wiping his forehead with a dirty cloth. “You look good. Throne treating you gentle today?”
She smiled wide. “Better than ever.”
Elara leaned against the console beside the crystal. “Alright, give us the details.”
Thalyn nodded. “It started in some... underground court-slum hybrid. A theater of grotesques. I was property, presented like a dancing curiosity to a crowd of rich freaks. They wore synth-bone and porcelain masks, draped in torn luxury.”
“Sounds charming,” Jaxon muttered.
“The guests,” she continued. “Overdressed clowns. They whispered about the fall of the upper city, about the invasion of Nether beasts.”
She paused, looking around.
“I escaped as chaos broke out. A woman in veils helped me flee, led me through tunnels. Then we met someone else, a masked figure. Said he could help…”
Before Thalyn could finish, a familiar voice curled into her thoughts like silk threaded with static.
“Surprise!”
Thalyn flinched, breath catching.
Elara was at her side in an instant. “What is it? Are you in pain?”
Thalyn shook her head. “No… It’s Arvie. She's speaking. Right now. In my head.”
Jaxon straightened. “I thought she only appeared during memory dives.”
“She did, also during the transition to the memories… and once, on the throne, when we tried purifying the minerals. But this is different. She’s... here with me. No throne.”
“Promotion unlocked,” Arvie said proudly. “I’m your companion now.”
Elara’s scanner hummed. “I see no problem. But your cortical interface is flaring like wildfire.”
Korr’s eyes narrowed. “She’s crossed over. Ahh these Elders!”
Thalyn folded her arms, uneasy but intrigued. “I should’ve expected it. Each transition, she felt more defined. More present. I think the throne finally sealed the bond.”
Jaxon frowned. “What now? She’s a voice in your head, full time?”
“She’s been that for a while. Just... not in my actual head.”
“I come with perks,” Arvie added. “One more session and I’ll unlock it all, every memory you’ve lived. Or my previous master. No more throne necessary.”
Thalyn’s eyes widened. “Wait. You can do that?”
“One last dive,” Arvie added. “After that, you’ll have access to all his memories, to a point.”
Thalyn turned to the others. “She says after the next session, I’ll have full access to Echo’s timeline. I wouldn’t need the throne to revisit.”
Korr stepped forward, wonder plain in his expression. “Memory AI fully bonded with its host... That's not tech. That’s legacy.”
Jaxon folded his arms. “And you’re still going back in?”
Thalyn looked to the throne. “I have to. To unlock the facility. To unlock everything.”
She hesitated, eyes drifting to the machinery down her body. Could she really get her old legs back?
Korr stepped aside. “Then let’s finish this.”
Static thickened as Thalyn approached the throne. The hum crawled through her bones. Arvie’s voice, low and reverent:
“One last dance, mistress. Let’s make it count.”
Thalyn settled into the seat. The crown descended.
The world phased out. Another life phased in.
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