I wasn’t dreaming—I was still logged in, blinking at the tail-end of an unfinished render when Eva212 twitched. Just once. A flicker through her chestplate, like light hitting silver under water. “Rebooting thread...” she said, voice slurred with something that wasn’t static, wasn’t code. It was a pulse. A beat like a breath.

The pattern remains. And if you don’t complete your expansion in this life, it may echo into the beyond—or bring you back.