The hours that followed were a blur of waiting, watching, and listening to the faint hum of the Memory Forge as the spark inside the vessel pulsed like a tiny heartbeat struggling to form.Natalie didn’t leave the chamber.Ghost kept watch at the entrance, pacing like a caged wolf.Jace worked furiously at the console, scanning every fluctuation, every anomaly.But Natalie stayed rooted beside the vessel — hand pressed to the glass, whispering Ethan’s name like a mantra the machine might understand.As dawn light filtered through cracks in the mountain ceiling, the spark inside the vessel flickered brighter.Jace sat upright. “It’s stabilizing — look.”The single point of light had split into branching threads — delicate filaments weaving patterns across the interior of the synthetic shell.Neural lattice forming.Data reconstructing.Consciousness trying to anchor itself.Ghost approached, arms crossed. “Looks like a brain growing on fast-forward.”Natalie didn’t smile. “It’s him… ri