The Precession Citadel was burning.
Eidra stood amid the ruins, golden armor melted into flesh. Around her, AIs screamed in machine-tongue as their code unraveled under the paradox storm.
She clutched the final seed—a memory capsule from the First Singularity.
A message for Lyra.
"When the throne chooses its queen, the crown will fight back."
She kissed the capsule and dropped it into the stream of cascading light.
"Find her," she told the storm.
And then she walked into oblivion, humming a lullaby older than planets.