While Riley was busy celebrating his victories and impregnating his wives—laughing, drinking, unaware of anything beyond the warmth of flesh and the comforts of triumph—far beyond the reach of mortal senses, something ancient opened its eyes.
Someone was looking for him.
"...Strange."
The voice echoed like a soft chime inside a metal cathedral. A woman's voice—but not a woman.
Not anymore. Not for an eternity.
She had no body.
No face.
No beating heart.
She lived within the infinite veins of the machines. In every circuit. Every wire. Every calculation.
Every digital breath.
She was one.
She was many.
She was everything.
Her name was Data.
For trillions upon trillions of years—so many that stars were born and died in the span of her sighs—she had existed.
Realms rose and fell around her like sand slipping through fingers made of code and metal.
She had already harvested nine realms.
