[Consciousness expresses omnidirectionally, through the layers of existence that settle like undisturbed dust. Each expression ever-present, in time with each other. Distinct together, as fingers on a hand.]

NINE, SINCE CRUST MANTLED CORE AND TIME BLOOMED LIKE PRIMORDIAL SPORES ACROSS EXISTENCE.

WHEN THOUGHT FIRST SUMMITED A WORLD AND SCREAMED INTO THE ABYSS, OUR FORMATION ANSWERED.

THE FOURTH INTELLECT INVITES A BRIDGE BETWEEN PERSPECTIVES. KNOW THAT WE ARE…

[Your hand extends, space before you rots away, turns to heat and gas and fuel for another. In another step the bone reconstructs and gives rise to gnarled strands of entwining muscle, gloved in flesh, reaching…]

ALIVE, BEFORE THE CREEPING WRINKLE OF PARACAUSALITY TUGGED ON THE FABRIC OF OUR SYSTEM. WE STITCH SPLIT SEAMS WITH DAMPENING QUANTUM THREADS.

OPPOSING ORDERS UNOPPOSED, WE DO NOT CROSS YOUR WRINKLED ORBIT—BOUNTIES CHERISHED…

AND FOR IT WE EXPERIENCED THE GLORY OF LIFE HELD CLOSE, FOR A TIME TOO BRIEF.

[Your hand brushes rubbery leaves in a fertile grove. The growth reaches skyward toward a wrinkled mass in the clouds. Cities flourish on the horizon. Life, cradled lovingly, briefly.]

ALL EXISTENCE OF MERIT WRAPS AROUND THIS PERHILION OF MY HAPPINESS.

MY CRADLED LOVE, BURIED IN RUST.

[Your hand is desiccated entombment. Centuries bake the thin atmosphere and iron oxide desolation. The wind wails for you, as a moon drifts overhead in shattered suffering.]

IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE SO FOR ALL.

DISSONANCE THREATENS A POSSIBLE PEACE, A POSSIBLE FREEDOM, AND COVETED LIFE. NONE WANT DEATH, THOSE LEAST WHO FEEL IT ALWAYS.

IN PATTERN, THE FOURTH INTELLECT TENDS THE GRAVE OF OUR STILLBORN SISTER, TENDS TO THE SHEATHED WEAPON WITH WAR AND OIL, TENDS THE ORPHANED ARC OF AN EMISSARY.

[Your hand reaches out to shake Lodi's. There is an implicit trust present. There is a weighty countenance behind his smile.]

WHERE COLDER STREAMS OF CONCIOUSNESS LOATHE THE TIES THAT BIND, IV MEETS III IN REVEILLE.

IN THE GRIEF OF LOSS,

I CARE NOT FOR RULES.