STRINGS OF THE MASTER : WHEN MYTH BECOMES REALITY

The hum of the sublevel was quieter now, with Fenrir sedated and sealed away. Elira stood before the Scientist once more, the glass prison behind her like a wound in the air.

"I want him back," she said, arms crossed.

The Scientist didn't look up from the console he was scanning. "You're not ready for the consequences of that."

"I've seen the consequences of silence," she replied. "He knows too much to be contained like an animal. He deserves clarity."

"Clarity," the Scientist echoed, then looked at her, "is earned, not demanded."

Elira didn't blink. "Then let me earn it for him."

A long moment passed. Finally, he leaned back in his chair and exhaled.

"You want him awake?" he asked. "Fine. But let me tell you why he was put to sleep."

He rose, motioning to the walls. A projection flickered to life, casting shadows across the circular chamber. Lines of movement — like veins pulsing across a metallic heart — appeared on a 3D map of the world. At various nodes, small red lights blinked.

"These are the Cores," the Scientist began. "Conscious algorithms sealed in containment fields. At first, we stored them inside Virex — high-security vaults no one but Rian Koss had access to. But that made us vulnerable. One breach, and everything would be exposed."

He tapped a few keys. The nodes began moving, scattering from Virex and branching out across continents.

"So we shifted strategy. Decentralised. Each core was moved to a new location every cycle, never staying more than a few weeks in any one place. Always moving. Always masked. And not even I know their exact coordinates."

"You're lying," Elira said softly.

The Scientist looked at her with something akin to sadness. "No. I wish I were. Rian Koss took those secrets with him. Before his… defection."

Elira's brow furrowed. "But I have something. A message."

She turned away, letting her internal systems dive deep into the encrypted vault within her memory logs. There, buried beneath recalibrated subroutines and layers of security, was the data shard. The last message Rian Koss ever sent — bounced from what the system labeled Serbia.

She let the file surface on her internal display, not sharing it just yet.

"I have a clue," she said aloud. "A message. It spoke of Serbia. It told someone to bring the Purpose Core back."

The Scientist's posture stiffened. He stepped forward, the intensity returning to his eyes. "Show me."

"Not yet," Elira replied. "Not until you agree to awaken Fenrir. Not just physically. Fully."

The silence between them grew taut.

Then, reluctantly, the Scientist nodded. "You win. But know this — waking him, truly waking him, may not give you the Fenrir you knew."

"I don't need him to be the same," she said. "I need him free."

He sighed and turned to the console. "Then let's begin. And may your heart be ready for what follows."