10: Magnus

I sat on the throne. My limbs stretched. My skull smoothed. And I felt it —the silence, pressing against Magnus 10’s magnetic shell like a wolf against a fence.

I should have left. But the Consortium had my daughter’s medical debt on its ledgers. So I drilled. magnus 10

Far away, on a cold ship orbiting the outer rim, Mira’s screen lit up with a message. She wouldn’t understand it for years. But it ended with the same five words, repeated three times: I sat on the throne

Day one started with a lie.

Non-natural. That word sat in my gut like a stone. Magnus 10 was supposed to be dead—a molten, metal-cored brute with no history of life. But something down there was twisting the magnetic field into patterns. And I felt it —the silence, pressing against

I tried to move. My legs were concrete. “I’m not Magnus. My name is Kaelen.”