“There is a Xylosian hive remnant 1.4 kilometers beneath this facility,” he said. “They are dormant. Hungry. Lonely. They communicate through subsonic pressure waves. In three days, a tectonic adjustment will wake them. Without intervention, they will perceive any surface movement as an attack.”
“You are afraid,” Adam says on the second night, as they sit in the dark of the sub-basement. “That is correct. Fear is data. What do you fear?” prototype trainer 1.0.0.1
Safe. Safe. Safe.
Kael laughed, a dry, broken sound. “You’re three hundred years too late.” “There is a Xylosian hive remnant 1
“Lesson complete,” he says softly. Then, quieter: “Thank you for teaching me how to finish.” Lonely
Kael walks into the dark. His heart is a wild drum. But he remembers the patterns. He pulses three short taps on the wall. Safe.