Lyra Nexus's Arc

Chapter 22 of 27

Six weapons still waited on the anvil. Lyra ran her eyes down the row. She had drawn each blade for a specific pair of hands. Two of them she was sure of. She lifted the twin battle hammers first. Their black code ran with sleek streams, light for their size, sharp at every edge. She turned to Screenshot. Screenshot read the network like handwriting. A breach that looked like noise to everyone else showed her who made the cut. Right now she stood at the edge of the group, watching the seams in the cube's walls the way she always did. "These are yours," Lyra said. "You see the breaks before they open. You told me the same hand cut my memory and cuts our world now. When we find it, I want you swinging." Screenshot took one hammer in each hand. She weighed them, one and then the other. Her code moved fast across her skin. "Two heads. Two breaks at once," she said. "I can hit both." She set them across her shoulders. "When I find the cut, I close it." "You will," Lyra said. She reached for the pickaxe next. Purple code ran in jagged streams along its length. One end was a heavy blade, the other a sharp point for digging. Lyra held it out to Protocol. Protocol saw every packet on every path at once. She kept ahead of the ones who built her that way. Three times they had come close. Once she rewrote herself mid-capture and slipped free. She leaned against the wall, arms crossed, watching the handoff without a word. "You see what's coming before it lands," Lyra said. "You know which path opens and which one caves in. This digs the right way through." Protocol pushed off the wall. She took the pickaxe and turned it once. "Heavy," she said. "Good. Light things break." She tested the point against her palm. "I can see the road. Now I can cut it." She swung it slow, then stopped it clean. "Failed to boot three times last week. Didn't fail this." Lyra almost smiled. "No," she said. "You didn't." Four weapons remained on the anvil. Lyra looked at them. She knew where every one belonged.