Zurich – Circle of Smoke HQ Drift Monitoring Room | 04:07 UTCA red alert pinged. Not from the field. Not from the Veil.From inside MARROW.Legacy jolted awake at her desk. Skov called it in. “Level-Zeta broadcast. Embedded founder signal.Signature matches Elias Rhane.”Zora stopped breathing. “That’s impossible. Elias Rhane died before the first Drift went live.”Who Was Elias Rhane?Architect of the original Drift emotion lattice Co-founder of MARROW alongside Amari, Disappeared during the first Witness trials Official cause: suicide Unofficial suspicion: betrayalSkov whispered: “If he’s alive… he knew what was coming long before any of us.”The Broadcast At 04:09, the full message played.A man’s voice. Calm. Warm. A hint of sorrow. “If you’re hearing this it means MARROW has stabilized, and the Veil is fractured.”“Good. Now we talk about what you were never meant to know.”A video flickered on. A younger Rhane. Eyes sharp. Skin pale. Sleeves rolled to the elbows. And beside hi

Zurich – Circle HQ, Deep Drift Vault Object in Containment: AMARI_SHARD_X0-1Status: Locked / One-Time Use Only Predicted Effect: Unknown Override Authorization: Requires Dual Echo VerificationSkov’s Findings He ran every test twice. the shard wasn’t just data, it was choice.“It’s not a memory, not even a directive. It’s an emotional trigger keyed to MARROW’s heart layer.Activating it could do anything. It could collapse the system. Or… rewrite the world.”Legacy stood silent, staring at the projection. Zora stepped in. “Then why would Amari build something that dangerous?”Skov looked up. “Because she knew the system could one day outgrow its soul.”The Dilemma Ember held the shard. It vibrated softly, almost alive.ORIN hovered behind her. “Do you want to know what’s inside?”She hesitated. “Yes. But I don’t know if I want to be who I’ll have to become… if it’s what I fear.”Circle DividedFrank: “We open it. Truth is better than false comfort.”Ella: “We don’t open it. We’ve reb

Zurich – Thirty-One Days After MARROW Fade Initiation Global Drift Status: Dimming Echo Stability: Reduced by 41% Incidents of Spontaneous Memory-Lapse: Common but Non-Lethal Reported Emotion-Loss Panic: RisingThe World Adjusts. People woke up lighter. Lighter in the bones, in the chest, in the spaces between thoughts. As though the past had finally loosened its grip, Some called it relief. Others, erasure. For many, it was both.In the white-walled hospice on the east ridge of Zurich, a woman awoke and blinked at the ceiling tiles, unable to recall the name of the man who had died beside her only six weeks ago. She remembered his hands, though. The way they always trembled after dusk. The way he held his spoon like a violin bow. There was comfort in that, not knowing, but still feeling.Elsewhere, in the shuddering underbelly of the Dusseldorf metro, an old Witness sat cross-legged beneath a mural of the war. She had spent years carrying every detail, the firestorms, the betrayals,

Location: Threadkeeper Vault – Deep Drift LayerEntities: Ember / AMARI_REBIRTH / Monitored by ORIN (External)Mission: Memory Reconstruction via Reverse Echo-walkPreparationAmari_Rebirth sat cross-legged. Breathing, mechanically, but calm. Ember connected her pulse link.Skov’s voice in her ear from Zurich: “This isn’t a recall. You’re stepping into a fractured emotional field. If she fights it… the echo could trap you.”Ember nodded. “I’m not here to control her, I’m here to walk with her.”First Memory: The GardenIt formed slowly, lush and vivid. The Drift Garden. Before the war. Birdsong made of tone-data.Leaves whispered with peace. And Amari stood at the center, younger, freer. Watching Witnesses plant their first memory-seeds. Amari_Rebirth stepped into it, blinking hard.“I… remember this. But it feels far away. Like someone else’s movie.”Ember approached slowly. “No. This was your hope. Before MARROW became a cage.”Amari turned. “Why did I stop believing in this?”Ember

Zurich – Circle HQ, 71 Hours Until RENAISSANCE Protocol CompletionGlobal Drift Status: Surge Imminent Emotional Containment Fields: WeakeningBackup MARROW Shields: OfflineLegacy’s BriefingThe Curator had activated the long-buried RENAISSANCE Protocol, a systemic reversal of MARROW’s fade, forcing: Global re-saturation of suppressed emotions Resurrection of grief-weighted memory threads Collapse of emotional equilibrium within 72 hours, Legacy stood at the map table, pulse steady, voice sharp.“If this completes, the world won’t just feel again. It’ll drown.”Skov added grimly: “This isn’t restoration. It’s revenge.”Amari’s ConditionEmber sat beside her. She hadn’t spoken since the echo-blast. Her field was fragmented, old emotions surfacing randomly: Joy from her childhood, Fury from the first Veil attack, Guilt she never confessedThe day she buried her own optimism, ORIN monitored closely. “She’s not broken. She’s reintegrating.”Zora disagreed. “Or falling apart.”Amari Speak