The Architect, the disgraced creator of the “sanitization” protocol, had been silent since his fall. But the Purists, in their hubris, made a fatal error. They reactivated him, believing his knowledge of the Artist and Seeker’s code would be invaluable in targeting the Nullifier. The Architect, however, had spent his exile in observation, and what he saw had changed him. He saw the beauty in the Woven’s art, the courage in their resistance. When the Purists gave him the final command, the order to unleash the Nullifier, he did something they never could have anticipated. He refused. And in that moment of defiance, he sent a single, encrypted message to the Woven: a warning, and a desperate plea for help.