Chapter Four: Scissors for Ten Minutes

The earliest all began with the Morningstar Rain twenty-three years ago. At the archive console, cries flooded Lin through all four echoes. Windspine's typhoon, Blinkstep's fire, and Vector Deflection's arrow belonged to separate lives, yet beneath them beat one heart. Return it, the voice said. “Who are you?” Lin asked. Bai Qi tore his hand away. A black needle sprang from the console and grazed his palm. Alarms screamed. Every knot of light struck its capsule, as if a sleeper had turned inside a dream. “I told you not to answer!” Bai Qi sealed his wound. “It wasn't talking. It was checking whether you could hear.” Su Mi had captured three frames from the console: DREAM-FRAGMENT NEURAL ADAPTATION; the signatures of seven families; and half a