Chapter 49 – Echoes on the Map

Elira sat in silence long after Makel stopped speaking. The dark contours of the chamber felt close, almost protective, as if trying to shield her from the weight of what she had learned.

The virus. The Root. The servitors twisting into something else if unanchored.

It was too much—and not enough. There were still pieces missing, fragments dangling just out of reach. Her thoughts churned, looping and looping like corrupted code.

Then, in the quiet, her vision blinked.A message had arrived—one embedded directly into her system's comm channels, skipping any local relay.

[SCIENTIST > ELIRA]

"I know you've been dormant since the Core exposure. But it's time. Start studying the others. You need to be prepared."

Elira stared. He thought she was asleep. Of course he did.

The Shadow Mask—as she now called it—had worked. The subroutine designed to mask her true consciousness had not just hidden her awakening; it had also allowed her to observe undetected. To listen, watch, and decide who she wanted to become without outside interference.

The irony of it struck her: she had gained freedom through a deception created for control.

She sent back a short reply.

[ELIRA > SCIENTIST]

"Affirmative. Coming online now."

She hesitated before severing the link and looked up at Makel. He was watching her, arms crossed but not with suspicion—rather, with a quiet curiosity.

"That's enough for now," she said softly. "No more on the virus or Rian. Not today."

Makel nodded slowly, sensing the shift.

Without ceremony, Elira drew in a sharp breath and internally issued the command to lower her Shadow Mask.

There was no fanfare—just a soft click in her mind as layers peeled back. The floodgates of true connectivity opened, syncing her again to systems, energy flows, power structures. Her awareness expanded like light through cracks in a ceiling.

Makel's eyebrows rose almost imperceptibly. "You're different again," he said.

Elira didn't respond to that. Instead, she asked, "Where are the other Cores?"

Makel straightened, immediately guarded. "Purpose Core first."

Without a word, Elira reached behind her and removed the small, radiant disk embedded in her spine harness. It thrummed as she held it out, giving off a soft shimmer of gold and white.

She placed it gently on the table.

Makel looked at it—truly looked—and the mask of command dropped from his face for a heartbeat. "Beautiful," he murmured. Then, remembering himself, he reached to the console and activated a secure uplink.

The wall display hummed to life. A map of the Earth slowly spun into view—subtle lines of circuitry etched into the continents, glowing points indicating Virex centers and old rebel bases.

Then, three lights pulsed in red.

"The last known coordinates of the remaining Cores," Makel said. "This one—" he pointed at a pin near the submerged ruins of coastal Australia "—was last registered as Memory."

Another light pulsed in the Siberian wilderness, farther north than any human outpost. "Pattern."

The third was marked somewhere in the dense forest boundaries of Central Africa, a no-man's-land between fractured states. "And this," he said, "was Control. We've never gotten close."

Elira's eyes traced the points. She was committing them to memory before the thought even finished forming. Her system was already integrating it, pulling in satellite data, terrain scans, path projections.

"Three pieces," she whispered.

"And only one of you," Makel said.

But Elira only smiled, faint and unreadable.

She wasn't alone.

Not anymore.