Chapter 443: Eir

The boring week lasted six days.

Damon considered that an extraordinary victory.

On the first day, Ester did not allow him to leave the bed.

On the second, she allowed him to sit up.

On the third, Damon discovered that "walking to the window" and "quietly leaving the room while the healer is distracted" were, apparently, different medical activities.

He learned that when a needle went through his sleeve and pinned his clothes to the hallway wall.

On the fourth day, his ribs had improved enough for him to take a deep breath without wanting to murder anyone.

On the fifth, he had almost completely recovered movement in his shoulder.

On the sixth...

Damon was lying on the roof of one of Mirath’s tallest buildings.

Arms behind his head.

Eyes closed.

No sword.

No messages.

No systems.

No ancient people trying to use him to rebuild some structure meant to control the world.

The peace was strange.

He liked it.

"You know I can see you from down here, right?"

Damon opened one eye.

Ester was in the street.

Arms crossed.

Looking directly at him.

"No."

"Lie."

"I was hoping the distance would impair your vision."

"Come down."

"I’m resting."

"You climbed four floors."

"Slowly."

"Damon."

He closed his eye again.

"I’m enjoying my boring week."

Ester remained silent.

Damon waited.

Nothing.

He opened his eyes.

She was no longer there.

He frowned.

"That’s concerning."

"I agree."

The voice came from behind him.

Damon turned his head.

Ester was sitting on the roof.

"How did you—"

"Stairs."

"Ah."

"Idiot."

"You climbed four floors just to call me an idiot."

"It was worth it."

Damon smiled.

She sat beside him.

For several minutes, neither of them spoke.

Mirath below looked different.

Not physically.

The same buildings.

The same streets.

The same merchants fighting over space.

The same people carrying boxes, arguing over prices, and complaining about the heat.

But something was missing.

Urgency.

No one in that city knew exactly how close they had come to becoming part of a network rebuilt around a man who had died centuries ago.

Maybe that was better.

Damon looked at the sky.

"Jian Li?"

"Better."

"How much?"

"She can walk on her own for a few minutes."

"Circulation?"

"Unstable, but it isn’t getting worse."

"Mu Qing?"

Ester made a complicated expression.

"She’s trying to learn not to interfere."

Damon turned his head.

"That sounds harder for her than rebuilding an entire body."

"It is."

"Xue Lian?"

"With Xue Mei."

"Doing?"

"Normal things."

Damon raised an eyebrow.

"Define normal."

"Eating. Talking. Xue Mei took her mother to see the market."

He went quiet.

"Good."

Ester glanced sideways.

"Aurelia is sleeping a lot."

"Expected."

"Aria is writing a lot."

"Also expected."

"Vorn complains."

"Unfortunately survived."

Ester hit his knee.

"I saved his life."

"You didn’t need to say that with pride."

"I didn’t."

"Your face."

She went still.

Damon smiled.

"Now it’s mine."

"I hate you."

"Mutual."

Silence again.

It was nice.

So nice that Damon began to get suspicious.

"If something explodes tomorrow, it’s my fault."

Ester slowly turned.

"Why?"

"I’m too comfortable."

"No."

"It’s statistically suspicious."

"You don’t know statistics."

"Aria talked to me."

"That makes it worse."

Damon laughed.

Ester was about to answer when every bird in Mirath took flight at the same time.

The smile died.

Hundreds.

Then thousands.

They did not flee in one direction.

They simply fled.

As if something had passed beneath the city.

Damon sat up.

Ester was already standing.

No spiritual pressure.

No mark.

No call from the network.

Nothing.

Damon looked at her.

"Did you feel it?"

"No."

"Neither did I."

That was worse.

A bell rang in central Mirath.

Once.

Then again.

Alert.

Damon stood.

Ester placed a hand on his chest.

"You’re still injured."

"I know."

"Don’t run."

"I’ll walk aggressively."

"Damon."

But he was already leaving.

---

Aria reached the main room almost at the same time.

Out of breath.

Black plate in her hands.

Damon pointed.

"Don’t tell me."

"It’s not the plate."

He stopped.

"That’s new."

"Exactly."

Xue Lian entered accompanied by Xue Mei.

Jian Yue came right behind them.

Elizabeth stood near the window, looking at the sky.

"External patrols found nothing."

Damon looked at Aria.

"Then what happened?"

She placed a map on the table.

Not the network map.

A normal map.

Territorial.

Aria pointed to a region far east of Mirath.

"We received three messages from trading posts in less than twenty minutes."

"About?"

"Animals fleeing."

Ester crossed her arms.

"That happens."

"Not from an entire forest."

Silence.

Xue Lian approached.

"Which forest?"

Aria searched a note.

"Modern maps call it Eir Valley."

Aurelia appeared in the doorway.

Still pale.

Still thin.

But walking without support.

She heard the name.

Stopped.

Damon noticed.

"You know it."

Aurelia did not answer immediately.

Xue Lian looked at her.

"Aurelia."

"I know the old name."

Aria turned.

"What?"

Aurelia approached the map.

Touched the region.

"It wasn’t a valley."

"Then?"

"It was an exclusion."

Damon closed his eyes.

"Of course."

Ester immediately pointed at him.

"Don’t start."

"I’m simply accepting the inevitable."

Aurelia ignored both of them.

"During the earliest studies of the network, there were regions that could not be integrated."

Xue Lian became serious.

"Because of incompatibility?"

"Some."

"Others?"

Aurelia looked at her.

"Because they didn’t want to."

Silence.

Damon frowned.

"Regions don’t want."

Aurelia looked directly at him.

"This one did."

No one spoke.

Damon took a few seconds.

"No."

"Yes."

"A conscious region."

"Not exactly."

"That sentence never makes anything better."

Aurelia ran her finger over the map.

"At the center of the forest, there was a tree."

Damon went still.

Aria slowly looked at him.

Ester too.

He pointed.

"No."

Xue Mei frowned.

"What?"

Damon exhaled.

"Nothing."

Aurelia continued.

"It existed before the Architects."

"Before the network?" Xue Lian asked.

"We don’t know."

"Was it a root?"

"No."

"A core?"

"No."

"A function?"

Aurelia hesitated.

"Maybe the closest word would be... local will."

Damon placed both hands on the table.

"You’re telling me there’s a conscious tree that refused to participate in the network."

"Yes."

"For how long?"

"When I was placed in suspension, it had already been isolated for hundreds of years."

Aria wrote.

"Why?"

Aurelia became serious.

"Because the first attempt to connect that region ended with everyone sent there being returned."

Damon looked at her.

"Returned?"

"Alive."

"That sounds reasonable."

"Without memories."

The humor vanished.

"Ah."

Xue Lian asked:

"Did the Architects try?"

"Once."

"Result?"

Aurelia took a deep breath.

"They never tried again."

Damon went still.

That said a lot.

"Caelum gave up?"

"No."

Aurelia looked at him.

"Caelum was afraid."

Silence.

Damon straightened.

"That says even more."

Aria’s plate vibrated.

Everyone looked.

She immediately raised it.

"I didn’t touch it."

Observation lit up.

EXTERNAL EVENT DETECTED.

Damon closed his eyes.

"My week."

Ester looked at him.

"Six days."

"I was robbed."

Another message appeared.

ORIGIN: OUTSIDE RESTORED NETWORK.

Xue Lian looked at Aurelia.

"Eir Valley."

The plate confirmed.

UNCLASSIFIED STRUCTURE.

Then:

REQUEST RECEIVED.

Damon became serious.

"Request?"

Aria touched the plate.

"For what?"

The answer took time.

CONNECTION.

Aurelia lost color.

"No."

Damon looked at her.

"Why?"

"It never asked."

Silence.

"In every record I saw, it refused any approach."

The plate changed.

CONNECTION REQUESTED BY EXTERNAL STRUCTURE.

Xue Lian narrowed her eyes.

"Then something changed."

Damon stared at the message.

It did not look like an attack.

There was no command.

No imposition.

A request.

After everything they had done...

The network now knew how to respond to that.

ACCEPT?

Everyone looked at Damon.

He slowly turned.

"Why are you looking at me?"

Aria answered.

"Experience."

"That is exactly the habit we just tried to eliminate."

Xue Lian smiled.

"Then don’t decide alone."

Damon went quiet.

Then smiled.

"Good."

He looked at Aria.

"Who is the request for?"

She consulted Observation.

The answer appeared.

FOR THE NETWORK.

Damon raised an eyebrow.

"Then the network answers."

Silence.

The white lines beneath Mirath lit up.

For several seconds, nothing happened.

Then:

CONNECTION ACCEPTED.

Aurelia took a deep breath.

Damon kept watching.

A single line appeared on the map.

Very thin.

Leaving the restored boundary.

Heading east.

Eir Valley.

When it touched the region...

It stopped.

It did not enter.

It waited.

Damon smiled faintly.

"It’s asking permission."

Xue Lian nodded.

"As it should."

The map trembled.

The line advanced.

One centimeter.

Then another.

Accepted.

Not conquering.

Not absorbing.

Entering.

Aurelia watched as though she were witnessing something impossible.

"Caelum tried for decades."

Damon looked at her.

"Maybe that was the problem."

The line advanced again.

Then stopped violently.

The plate emitted a sharp sound.

Aria almost dropped it.

CONNECTION INTERRUPTED.

Damon became serious.

"Why?"

Observation answered.

EXTERNAL STRUCTURE UNDER ATTACK.

Silence.

Ester closed her eyes.

"No."

Damon looked at her.

"I didn’t say anything."

"Your face."

"This is getting ridiculous."

Another message appeared.

REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE.

Xue Lian went still.

Aurelia looked at the map.

Damon ran a hand over his face.

Six days.

He had asked for seven.

"Who is attacking?" Aria asked.

The plate remained quiet.

Observation did not know.

Then another message appeared.

Not from Observation.

From the incomplete connection.

The letters did not follow the functions’ pattern.

They were irregular.

Almost as though someone were learning to write by using the network.

DON’T LET THEM TAKE ME.

No one spoke.

Damon looked at Aurelia.

She had gone white.

"Now you recognize something."

"Yes."

"What?"

Aurelia pointed at the word.

"Them."

Damon waited.

"Who?"

She raised her eyes.

"The Architects were not the only ones who knew about the network."

Silence.

Damon closed his eyes.

"Naturally."

Ester hit his arm.

"You asked for a week."

"I know."

"Six days."

"I know."

"This is your fault."

"I agree."

She stopped.

"Don’t do that."

"I’m tired."

Xue Mei started laughing.

Damon looked at the message again.

DON’T LET THEM TAKE ME.

This time there was no candidate.

No succession.

No function awaiting definition.

It was not the past trying to continue.

It was something alive asking for help.

Damon exhaled.

"When can we leave?"

Ester answered immediately.

"Tomorrow."

"Today."

"Tomorrow."

"This afternoon."

"After I examine your ribs."

Damon thought.

"Negotiable."

"It isn’t."

Aria was already opening her notebook.

Xue Lian looked at Xue Mei.

Her daughter smiled before she even asked.

Aurelia remained in front of the map.

"If it really is her..."

Damon looked at her.

"We’ll find out."

"You don’t understand."

"Frequently."

Aurelia touched the name of the region.

"Caelum was afraid of that tree because it could do something no function could."

Silence.

Damon lost his humor.

"What?"

Aurelia answered.

"It could look at a structure..."

Her eyes met his.

"...and remember what it was like before someone changed it."

Damon went still.

The plate vibrated again.

This time a new word appeared beneath the request for help.

It was not the name of a function.

Nor a command.

A name.

EIR.

Very far from Mirath, at the center of a forest no path of the network had entered for centuries, a colossal tree opened thousands of eyes along its trunk.

All of them looked toward the same place.

North.

Between the roots, men dressed in red were tearing pieces from its bark and fastening black chains around the trunk.

One of them raised his head.

Smiled.

"Finally awake."

The tree’s eyes closed.

One by one.

Except one.

That one remained open.

And watching.