This time, the dream of the Mycelial Wastes was not just Elara's. It was a dream of the whole network. Leo felt it first – a strange, disturbing feeling, as if something massive and slow was moving. It was not frightening, but he was sure that something was going on. When he arrived in the root-forest at sunrise, he understood it: the mushroom towers were not just growing, they were going down. All of them, along miles, were turned towards Sanctum.
It was not an assault but rather a gesture of reaching out.
He convened a meeting of the Tendril-Council at the Heartwood Spire (which was showing its scar from the previous encounter). Bianca, Naomi, and Maxine came as the Stewards' representatives.
Leo was telling the truth when he said that the network received the maps. The Lobe's idea of good pathways, our work on the Terraform loops, your knowledge of people's whereabouts. The network is coming up with a new body plan that still has us as... parts. Not as intruders, but as parts that cooperate.
He showed them the tower leaning. It is developing things to link other things. Like highways for the nutrients to flow directly from the Wastes to Sanctum's systems we've been building. It is willing to unite the two halves of the world into one.
Naomi was observing the forest gently bending. It is integrating us into its own existence.
Yeah, Leo replied. We need to decide if we're in.
This would entail a massive change: Humans would be tethered to this for eternity. Urban areas would become like nodes in a vast nervous system. The mushroom stuff would be their blood. They would lose their own separate existence from the world around them.
It's like, genuine collaboration, Bianca said, looking uneasy. We'd really be a part of it, not just existing on top.
Or, Maxine said, in a sensible tone, "It's simply the logical step. The network identifies a problem – two systems operating separately – and decides to merge them. It's not about emotions, it's about efficiency."
Is there a difference? Leo wondered, looking at the Heartwood Spire. The Host was considerate of what it made at one point, before they began consuming it. This seems like… maybe doing it again, but differently.
First, they consulted the Stewards, then everyone else. It was a huge talk, bigger than the vote to toggle the switch. Some saw it as wonderful, becoming a part of something larger in a slow, natural way, like Wilder wanted. Others saw it as the end; humanity would cease to be its own entity.
Benny and Elara were watching the debate together. Benny sensed the network calling, as if inviting them back to a forest. Elara sensed the human fear – losing the self they had so painstakingly created.
They're both right, Elara told him in a whisper. It is both incredible and terrifying. Things are shifting.
Finally, the Stewards did not make a choice. Rather, they decided the manner of making the decision.
We won't decide yes or no, Bianca told the people at the Heartforge. We'll… give it a shot. We'll let the network expand one small link. A single, controlled connection between the Pancreatic Reclamator in Sanctum and the oldest digestor pool in the Wastes. After that, we will see the outcome, and the feeling.
It was an insane idea. They would slowly bind the world together and find out how it felt.
They chose the location. When the network got the go-ahead, it sent a thick, radiant mushroom cord growing between the two areas. Maxine installed the instruments. Benny and Elara stayed to see what would unfold.
When they did the connection, nothing extraordinary took place. Just a breath. A long, deep breath that went all through the rock of both cities. The Reclamator in Sanctum became 20% more efficient in its work. In the Wastes, the digestor pool began producing better nutrients.
And Benny and Elara, while holding hands and looking at the link, sensed something different. Not a voice, but a common thought. Immediately, they knew how much calcium was in the Wastes' soil, and how hungry a kid was in a Sanctum dorm miles away. They were connected.
It was a lot of information for them to absorb, and very intimate. It was the first step of a new language between two worlds that were now intertwined.
The fast was no longer only about not eating. It was about getting ready for a new way to be fed – something that might make them take down their own walls to let it all in.