The clearing became a surgical theater.
Isla's crew moved quickly, almost wordlessly. Years of working in high-stress conditions had whittled their communication down to essentials—hand gestures, short nods, brief phrases. Cables were unspooled from coil packs on their backs, interfaces clipped into place, bio-reactive fuses embedded into bark and ground alike. The stabilizer loomed at the center, dark and silent, waiting.
Aouli stood at the edge, watching Isla finish the final calibration. The vines surrounding the tower trembled, reacting to the build-up of static energy. Maelle crouched at a console that projected a flickering schematic of the valley's biosystems, layered with shimmering fault lines and pressure ridges.
"I've patched the feedback loop into the pulse modulator," Isla called. "Maelle, monitor the neural phase shift. Ezra, prepare to bleed excess voltage through the east capacitor."
She looked to Aouli. "You ready?"
He nodded. "What happens when I connect?"
"You stabilize the field by syncing with it," Isla said. "Your body—whatever it is—should serve as an organic dampener. Just… hold it steady. For thirty seconds."
Aouli stepped forward.
The panel before him unfurled like a petal, revealing a bioglass core pulsing faintly with erratic, violet light. He placed his hands on the surface. Immediately, it responded—spreading warmth, then heat, then a storm of sensation.
He saw everything.
The jungle in layers—roots pulsing like veins, tree canopies shimmering with electromagnetic fluctuations, data streams hidden in the spores of mushrooms, chemical pulses dancing across beetle shells like code. He was inside the forest's network.
Then the sequence began.
Isla flipped the master switch.
A low, droning hum spread outward.
For a moment, everything worked.
The ground stabilized. The flickering root pulses aligned. The biosphere quieted. Even the trees paused, their whispering static easing into a steady rhythm.
And then it surged.
The tower lit up in a blinding flare of energy. The hum spiked into a scream. Vines recoiled violently. A massive shockwave burst through the clearing, knocking Maelle and the others to the ground.
Aouli screamed—not aloud, but in the network, where the feedback loop had collapsed inward. The stabilizer was no longer dampening—it was amplifying.
The neural systems of the forest panicked. Roots twisted. Trees shuddered. Biotech implants deep beneath the soil misfired in sync, emitting bursts of radiation and electrical charge.
A swarm of insects exploded from a nearby tree, their bodies warped and glowing. One of the engineers shouted, batting them away as they scattered like embers. A thunderous crack followed—several trees snapped from the base and floated upward, lifted by a sudden inversion in local gravity.
Aouli felt it all—every misfire, every pulse, every confused signal bouncing across the dying net. It was chaos layered over panic, and it surged into him like an infection.
He faltered. His light dimmed.
He saw Maelle scream as a burst of volatile sap ignited near her console. A wall of living moss began to vibrate violently, building toward detonation.
He had to stabilize it—had to—
He forced himself deeper into the signal, ignoring the pain. He found the primary feedback loop—twisting violently, feeding on itself like a snake devouring its own tail. With one last push of will, he surged his energy into the loop and snapped it. Not corrected. Severed.
The tower burst open with a blinding flash and then fell silent.
Smoke and spores filled the air.
Aouli collapsed to the ground.
His glow flickered weakly. He felt torn—not physically, but energetically. Like part of him had been poured out and burned.
Around him, the clearing was scorched and unrecognizable. The tower was cracked down the center. One tree was still floating gently, spinning in place.
Isla was coughing, pulling Maelle to her feet.
"Report," she called hoarsely.
"West relay is dead," one of the engineers said. "East capacitor's ruptured. Feedback's neutralized but… I think the system's fried."
Maelle looked at Aouli with wide, wet eyes.
"You saved us," she whispered.
"No," Aouli said softly. "I stopped it. That's not the same."
He looked around at the wreckage. The forest was silent now—not just stunned.
It was angry.