Until the next whisper.

“What question?”

I sat on the throne. My limbs stretched. My skull smoothed. And I felt it —the silence, pressing against Magnus 10’s magnetic shell like a wolf against a fence.

The voice returned, softer this time.

“Oracle,” I said. “Give me a read on local magnetosphere.”

Far away, on a cold ship orbiting the outer rim, Mira’s screen lit up with a message. She wouldn’t understand it for years. But it ended with the same five words, repeated three times:

And I had swallowed it whole.

10: Magnus

Until the next whisper.

“What question?”

I sat on the throne. My limbs stretched. My skull smoothed. And I felt it —the silence, pressing against Magnus 10’s magnetic shell like a wolf against a fence.

The voice returned, softer this time.

“Oracle,” I said. “Give me a read on local magnetosphere.”

Far away, on a cold ship orbiting the outer rim, Mira’s screen lit up with a message. She wouldn’t understand it for years. But it ended with the same five words, repeated three times:

And I had swallowed it whole.