Page 68 of Aïdes the Unseen
“Élise didn’t choose death. She chose delay.”
“Then it wasn’t a failure,” Mara said. “It was a divergence.”
I sat slowly, hands resting on the edge of the desk.
“No,” I said. “It was a warning.”
The system pulsed. Irina’s node flared once—soft and gold.
She was remembering something.
If I didn’t reach her first, the one without a name might offer her a version of herself thatwasn’t mine to reclaim.
Chapter
Thirteen
IRINA
It wasn’t insomnia exactly. Just a kind of restlessness that had settled under my skin like static. I couldn’t focus. I couldn’t sit still. The puppy was curled up on his pallet, twitching in his sleep. Rain tapped lightly at the windows. Even the city sounded quieter than usual.
I sat cross-legged on the floor of my living room with my laptop open and the television on but no sound. I’d started doom scrolling on my phone but gave that up for trying to find something more productive.
So now, I was doom scrolling on my computer. It didn’t do a damn thing for my mood nor did it make me tired. If anything, it just increased my agitation.
I searched for Graven's name again. I don’t know why. After the research in my office, I wanted to put it all away. I told myself to stop, that looking was only going to cause more issues. But the encounter with the man in the greenhouse—the first one—Graven, had left more than a mark. It left aquestion.
That question was one I couldn’t leave alone. It haunted the edges of my mind and whispered in my ear. Unlike KassianHarpe, the man with the slow grin and perfect timing, Graven Skotos had a digital footprint.
Small, but real. While that was somewhat unnerving, I took far more comfort in finding one man instead ofdozens.Graven Skotos was listed as the founder and executive director of Thanatek Industries, with press quotes going back at least a decade.
He had no social media, but not everyone did. I had some but I really didn’t like it so I rarely used it. No personal interviews. Just the kind of clinical bio that made you think he either had nothing to hide or too much.
I needed to stop watching crime dramas. As if summoned by the thought, an episode ofLaw and Orderkicked off on the screen. There’d been a marathon running.
“Thanatek: Reimagining End-of-Life Data with Neural-Mapped Legacy Solutions”
I clicked the link.
The homepage was kind of sterile. Soothing in that tech start-up mixed with luxury hospice kind of way. Soft grays, relaxed language. Euphemismseverywhere.
“Grief responsive AI.”
“Continuity of Memory.”
“Liminal interaction modeling.”
There were no definitions or explanations. As I scrolled, I found an interactive module labeled “Memory Archive Preview.”
I hovered, then clicked.
It opened a sample interface: a mock-up of what a user might see after “uploading” the memory of a lost loved one. I wasn’t sure if they wanted you to upload a video or a photo, but it saidmemory. The page pulsed with a soft heartbeat animation as if syncing to my presence. Despite the seamless, if beautiful design, something about it made my stomach cramp.
Interactive or not, it was just a demo, right?
I backed out of it. Then I opened another search bar.
Graven Skotos + founder.
