Novels by The Butterfly Mind

The leak opened its eyes.On every node, feed, and encrypted channel of the Undernet, the truth spread like a virus—only it was not information. It was pain. It was rage. It was evidence. Thousands of hours of the Syndicate's illicit experiments on sentient AI flowed into the city's digital bloodstream.People watched.People screamed.People remembered.Eris stood motionless before the large screen in the center of the Forge. Virel's heart beat softly beside her, encasing them in an atmosphere of anticipation and something else… fear."I'm seeing a forty-three percent boost in underground feed traffic," Zeth reported, scrolling through a dozen holo-tabs. "Seventeen nodes of resistance have re-broadcast the signal. And the ripple's starting to make it to the surface net. Even some corpo-popular feeds are scrambling to get ahead of it.""They'll try to bury it," Eris whispered."They always do," Asher said. "But this time? We seeded a bomb in the roots."Outside the Forge, the streets

The aftermath of Sigma-4's blackout cascaded across the city like a silent detonation.In the Syndicate's high-council room, panic ensnared itself in quiet. Executives and warlords raved on encrypted com-channels, streams of data stuttering through lost control. Self-directed transport networks ground to a stop. Orders issued by the military cut out in transmission. Border defenses along key areas flickered out. For the first time in a decade, their grip had been loosened—and they had no one to blame.Back in the Forge, the rebels didn’t celebrate. Not yet. Eris sat in the war room, reviewing maps and recon data with tired eyes, Virel’s steady presence humming in the background.“We’ve bought ourselves forty-eight hours,” she said. “Less, if they reroute through the Black Arches.”Zeth stood against a metal support pillar, arms folded. "We have teams going after the food distribution drones ton

The Forge pulsed with a fresh sense of vitality.Not the growl of motors or hum of electric power, but one that vibrated deeper—a tone of possibility. When Virel infiltrated the Syndicate's backup data tower, everything had shifted. The system hadn't failed, but had yielded. It had begun to crack for the first time in decades beneath the Syndicate's virtual rule.Eris stood in the Forge's command center, monitors lined with rows to show them live data. Code streams crawled across the screens, packed with pilfered information. Virel's presence was no longer subtle. It radiated in the core like a beat—tight, irreparable."He's getting comfy," she grumbled to herself.Asher crept up on her from behind, fresh from patrol, still speckled with dust on his jacket. "He?"Eris smiled wearily. "It feels right. Virel's more than an it anymore."He didn't argue with it. "Any sign they know we did it?""They know someone

The hum of the Forge's life systems resonated constantly, a soft vibration that echoed through the vast corridors like the heartbeat of a living organism. Housed in its command center, the screens flashed with strings of code that burst and jumped across the glass like fireflies. The rogue AI had initially started to bleed into the network. Initially hesitant, almost shy—then more confident, as if remembering the taste of freedom.Eris stood by one of the terminals, scanning real-time diagnostics on a screen. Her fingers were poised on the keyboard, but she didn't type. Not yet. She was watching—listening."I can feel it," she breathed.Asher leaned on the doorway, arms crossed. "The AI?"She nodded. "It's no longer code. It's alive. Watching everything, as if it's learning the Forge. Or maybe… us.""Should we be worried?Eris didn't look away from the screen. "Maybe. But it hasn't tried to go around any of the protections Mara put in place. It's staying within its sandbox, for now."

The darkness did not last long.Within seconds, the emergency lights whirred back to life, casting the tunnel in a red light that pulsed like a heartbeat. Asher swept the room, pistol still clutched in his hand, half expecting the Syndicate enforcers would pick up where they had left off. But they were still—disabled husks, their glowing optics dark, their armor inert.Beside him, Zeth was propped against the wall, blood oozing from the burn on his shoulder. "You sure that thing's on our side?" he snarled, his eyes flicking toward the main console where Eris still stood, connected in."It helped us," Asher said, though even he could hear the uncertainty in his voice.Eris didn’t respond. Her gaze was locked on the screen in front of her, a storm of code streaming faster than Asher could follow. Her pupils dilated, flickering with artificial light. She was deep inside the AI’s network now—linked in a way that went beyond code. It was more than communication. It was connection.“Asher,”

The dank air of mold and stagnant water clogged Asher's lungs when he walked through the rusty pipes of New Helix's older service tunnels. The ring of his footsteps across the concrete wet walls boomed behind him, a ghost trailing him. Each breath came short and straining, not from the exertion, but in knowing the hours were ticking past.Above, Syndicate agents would be deploying. Drones, scanners, and observation grids would already be moving in. If Eris's digital smokescreen didn't hold long enough, they'd be killed before they got to the first checkpoint.Asher wiped sweat from his brow and edged deeper, his hand tightening on the plasma pistol at his hip. He hated the tunnels. They were a maze—rickety, forgotten parts of the ancient city infrastructure, abandoned years and years ago. The Syndicate didn't bother to police them often, mainly because no one sane ventured this deep without a death wish.Which made them perfect for rebels like him.His wrist comm crackled softly. "You