CHAPTER 7 — Segment 7.2 “Inside the Quiet Sector”

Chapter 7.2 is where the story stops approaching the unknown and quietly steps inside it. The warped panels, heat shadows, and curved scratches aren’t meant as dangers — they’re footprints, the physical biography of something learning how to occupy a space that no longer fits it cleanly.Riven and Calyx lean into tension here, but gently. Their disagreement isn’t drama; it’s two instincts brushing against each other — curiosity meeting caution, intuition pressing against protocol. The friction is the proof of how far they’ve already drifted from who they were in Chapter 1.The glimpse of the LOOM log is intentionally brief, a relic of an older system flickering awake because Riven walked past it. It’s not a reveal — it’s a hint that the past has started answering back.And the ending isn’t fear. It’s realization. They’re no longer chasing the anomaly’s trail; they’re standing inside a space shaped by it.