Nox returned to the Nexus a changed man. The quiet peace of his long retirement was gone, burned away by the cold, hard reality of the Shard. He carried the ghosts of Captain Rostova and her team within him now, their stolen stories a heavy, silent weight in his soul.
He stood before the council, his face a mask of grim resolve. "The Mimesis are not a simple monster," he reported, his voice flat. "They are a conceptual antibody. They are the Verse's natural defense against foreign narratives. And our very presence, our history, our power… it's all a foreign narrative to this new reality."
"So, what you're saying is, the better we get, the stronger they get?" Kendra asked, the strategic nightmare of the situation dawning on her.
