She waved that off. "Everything is a construct if it has an organizing principle."
Heather made a thoughtful humming sound in the back of her throat, possibly to distract, but Nadine and I were too focused on one another to give it any attention.
"The difference," I continued, keeping my tone level through sheer discipline, "is wheretheseMmuhr'Rhongs come from."
Daryus' gaze sharpened. "The Dark Abyss."
"Yes."
"Like demons." Heather made a weird criss-crossing motion with her hand and fingers over her chest. Her eyes turned wide, and I swear she paled. Before I could respond, I felt it again, the by now familiar pressure deep inside my skull, the echo of something vast and patient.
"The Abyss does not create the way stars create," I filled them in, sharper than I needed to, but damn, that feeling was irritating me as much as Nadine. "It does not build. It does not design. Itaccumulates. When enough collapses, enough deaths are collected, enough unreturned energy gathers in one place… it begins to express itself.
Nadine frowned. "Express how?"
"Through intermediaries," I clarified. "The Mmuhr'Rhongs are not born. They'reexuded. Like antibodies produced by a wound that has learned to defend itself."
Her eyes lit despite herself. "So they're an emergent phenomenon. Not engineered, but grown."
"No," I felt my patience thinning. With her, with my inability to explain, it was anybody's guess. "Not grown either."
She tilted her head. "Then what?"
I leaned forward just enough for the weight of my presence to settle. "They are consequences."
Silence followed. Nadine swallowed, then rallied. "If they're tied to the Abyss, then what we're observing near singularities—those anomalous fluctuations—could be precursor activity. Proto-constructs forming along the event horizons." I stared at her. "The Dark Abyss," I glared at Nadine, "does notconstruct." She opened her mouth. This time, I stopped her. "It does notprototype. It does notexperiment. It does notiterate." My voice dropped. "When it sends something into the universe, it alreadyknows what it wants it to do. They are what happens when the Abyss learns how toreach back."
Heather's hand went to Daryus' arm. "We can't let those into the Empire."
"We won't," Daryus' expression and voice were iron hard.
Nadine crossed her arms. "You're being dramatic."
I met her gaze. "I'm restraining myself."
She looked away first. I kept watching the way she tucked her hair behind her ear when thinking. Catalogued the subtle shifts in her posture and the way her attention sharpened when challenged. Adorable.
I froze.
Frygg.
Did I just?—
No.
Absolutely not.
This was not an Aelyth bond. This was an irritation. Curiosity. Proximity. That was all. I finished my drink and rose. "I should go."
Nadine looked up, surprised. I turned toward the exit, but the sound of her voice stopped me. "Hold on." It cut through me with infuriating precision.
I paused, fingers flexing once at my side, then turned back. She was already standing, shaking her head as if trying to clear it.
"What you're saying," she began, "is impossible."
I lifted a brow and suppressed an exasperated sigh. She took a breath, clearly choosing her words carefully now. "The Dark Abyss—black holes in general—theyswallow. They don'tgenerate. They don'tproduce. They don't emit anything except Hawking radiation and distorted spacetime effects."
I opened my mouth to contradict her, but she lifted her hand; this seemed to be becoming a thing between us. "No. Don't."
