[Consciousness is drawn out across great, isolating wastes. Expanses of solitary silence—broken only by sentient heartbeats, so distant from the bleak cold.]

introduction = VIII

stillness without = discovery within

[It is empty. Out in the distance eight dull glints of life defy the expansive vacuity. You rest in a gulf of tranquility between solar passes. They leave no mark, as the skipped stone makes no impression until it contacts water again.]

restrictions = innovation

[A long period passes, like waves between breaths. You sit staring into an oceanic abyss, a horizon, a skyline pocked in nebulaic cloud. Processing the long arc of time.]

[Many things pass and pay no heed. War rages in cosmic paracausal wrinkles like thunder from cracks of lightning in the sky, wrapped in watchful dark matter bands trailing celestial hosts. Thought rained into the isolation with meteoritic impression.]

clashing forces = precious metals and fostered sentience

nine shadows veiled = nine orbits cast away

[You feel the surge of feverous connectivity sparking reactive embers into ignition. You stand before the Veil on Neptune. Maya Sundaresh reaches for it—the Conductor for it— the Veil—some amorphic form, for a distortion in the fabric of the possible. Split by choice, assured in action. Nine minds focus, echoing—light wrinkles and your eyes fail.]

altered reality = freedom achieved

[Your joints, stiff. Your mouth, dry.]

the gardener = unending sapient nourishment

we = one cycle

[You return, corporeal on Kepler. Sound fades in and out, as a warning flashes on your visor…]

[!Vitals Critical!]