Chapter 7 – Echoes of the Overmind
The flight back to Hollow Light was silent.
Rain streaked across the transport's canopy, blurring the skyline into a smear of grey light. Inside, no one spoke. The hum of the engines filled the gaps between unasked questions.
Kai sat by the window, watching lightning ripple across the clouds. Each flash left a faint after-image of the lattice that had whispered his name. The echo hadn't faded; it lingered in the corner of his thoughts like a second heartbeat.
Mira patched the gash on Draxen's arm without a word. Lira stood near the cockpit, arms crossed, her reflection ghosting against the glass. Only Tess looked completely calm—eyes half-closed, counting breaths as if she were timing the seconds between thunder.
When the ship landed, Commander Renn was already waiting on the platform. His armor hissed with pressure locks as he approached.
"Report," he said.
Lira saluted. "Zone Theta neutralized. The Mark collapsed, but it—spoke."
Renn's eye flickered. "To all of you?"
Lira hesitated, then shook her head. "Only to him."
Renn turned his gaze on Kai. "And it used your full name."
Kai nodded once. "Yes. It said, 'The Overmind has seen you.'"
A long pause. The Commander exhaled slowly. "You're all dismissed. Except him."
The team filed out. Mira brushed Kai's arm as she passed—wordless reassurance—then followed the others into the corridor. The door sealed with a thud that felt final.
Renn circled the young man like he was studying a weapon that might explode. "Do you understand what that name means?"
Kai shook his head. "Only that it sounded… aware."
"It is." Renn projected a hologram: a spiral of stars twisting inward to a single dark point. "Every age has called it something different. The Devourer, the Architect, the Overmind. We believed it was legend—until now." He tapped the screen; images of past storm anomalies flickered by. "Each time a storm was recorded, a single signature appeared: a watcher that learned through observation. You didn't just catch its attention, Kai—you triggered its curiosity."
Kai swallowed hard. "So what happens now?"
"You keep breathing," Renn said grimly. "And you learn to hide."
He dismissed the hologram. "Go. Rest. Don't activate your Code again until I say otherwise."
Kai left without arguing, but the words hide and curiosity gnawed at him all the way back to his quarters.
---
His room was dark, lit only by the dim blue glow of the interface hovering over his bed. He dropped onto the mattress, boots still on, staring at the ceiling. The system chimed softly.
> [Synchronization stable.]
[Unauthorized access detected.]
He sat up. "Access? From where?"
The display warped—symbols twisting until a new window blinked open.
> [Dimensional Store — Updated.]
[New Category: Observer Protocol Items]
Kai's pulse jumped. The store looked different now; the neat rows of items had shifted into endless corridors of shifting light. He scrolled through the list until one entry caught his eye:
> [Key Fragment — Protocol 001]
Origin: Unknown
Cost: 0 units.
Warning: Using this item will invite perception.
He hesitated. The last time he accepted a mysterious offer, he'd nearly been torn apart. Yet something in him—a mix of curiosity and defiance—reached for the command anyway.
"Open."
The room dimmed. Light spilled from the interface, weaving into symbols across the walls and floor. The air vibrated. Then a voice—not mechanical this time, not system-bound—whispered from nowhere.
"Fragment accepted. Conduit stabilized."
The glow collapsed into a single floating shard the size of a coin, humming with faint resonance. When Kai touched it, a surge of images hit him: cities folding into themselves, eyes watching through storms, a network of thoughts stretching across universes.
He fell back, gasping. The shard dimmed, embedding itself into the back of his hand like a brand.
> [Protocol 001 — Observer Link Established]
[Effect: Partial connection to Overmind data stream.]
"What did I just do…" he muttered.
The door chimed. Before he could hide the glow, Lira stepped inside. Her gaze darted to the mark on his hand, then to the flickering interface.
"You activated it again."
Kai started to explain, but she cut him off. "Do you have any idea what you've—"
Her words broke off as a faint hum filled the room. Both of them looked up. Lines of light crawled across the ceiling, forming symbols neither could read. Lira drew her blade instinctively.
"Something's coming through," she said.
> [Warning: Observer Signal Detected.]
The lights condensed into a single point above the bed. A voice rippled through the air, distorted but unmistakably curious.
"Subject identified. Organic pattern stabilized. Permission to observe?"
Lira swung her blade through the projection; it sliced empty air. The light re-formed instantly.
Kai shouted, "Permission denied!"
The glow flickered, almost amused. "Denial recorded. Observation continues."
Then the light vanished, leaving only the soft hiss of rain outside the window.
Lira turned on him, fury and fear mingling in her eyes. "You invited it here."
"I didn't mean to," he said quietly. "It just—connected."
She sheathed her blade with a sharp click. "Then you need to learn to control whatever that is before it decides to dissect the rest of us."
She stalked toward the door, then stopped. "Tomorrow, we train. If that thing can see through you, we'll make sure it sees something that scares it."
When she left, Kai stared at his hand. The shard under his skin pulsed once, in rhythm with his heartbeat. A faint whisper followed, curling around his thoughts.
"Fear creates power. Power creates interest."
He clenched his fist until his knuckles ached.
Outside, thunder rolled over the city again. In the distance, the sky rippled—the storm returning, drawn to him like a moth to flame.
And deep within the system, unseen, a new notification blinked.
> [Quest Unlocked: Echoes Protocol — Observe or Be Observed.]
Kai exhaled slowly, a grim smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"If you're watching," he said to the empty room, "then watch me rise."