CHAPTER 4 — “The Signal That Followed Them”

Chapter 4 is the moment the anomaly stops behaving like a disturbance and starts watching back. Chapter 3 hinted at presence; this one leans in closer — warmth on the walls, shifted space, a blinking panel trying to speak in a language it hasn’t mastered yet. None of it is meant to frighten. It’s curiosity, reaching out.Riven and Calyx take another quiet step into sync here. They’re still pushing against each other, but they’re reading the room together now — two perspectives beginning to braid into one. Their connection doesn’t come from trust; it comes from noticing the same impossible things at the same time.And the final signal — that soft moment of recognition — is intentional. Not a threat. Not a reveal. Just acknowledgment. The station has identified them. And from here on, nothing it does is accidental.