Chapter 157: Signals Across Worlds

Claire became fascinated by the newly recovered fragment for a different reason than Mercer.

Mercer wanted to understand the mechanism.

Claire wanted to understand the content.

"If this really came from your old world," she said during a secure call, "then Mirror wasn't only sending my book somewhere. It was receiving something too."

Freya disliked how reasonable that sounded.

The laboratory identified several additional text fragments after reconstructing damaged sectors.

One appeared to be a reader comment.

Another looked like metadata from a publishing platform.

A third contained part of Freya's old pen name.

That was harder to dismiss.

Freya had never told anyone in this world the exact pen name she used before dying.

Louis asked whether she was certain.

"Completely."

The investigators documented her statement before showing her the full fragment to avoid contaminating the identification.

It matched.

Mercer proposed a controlled experiment using reconstructed Mirror code.

Freya refused immediately.

"No attempts to contact anything."

"We could run it isolated."

"No."

Mercer argued that the scientific value was enormous.

Claire sided with Freya.

Nadia did too.

Louis did not need to speak.

Freya explained her reasoning.

They did not know what the synchronization mechanism was, whether it caused anything, or whether recreating it could have consequences. Curiosity did not justify repeating an unexplained event involving human lives.

Mercer reluctantly accepted the restriction.

The existing data could still be studied passively.

Freya allowed researchers to compare timestamps.

One result unsettled her.

The fragment containing her pen name had entered the corrupted record approximately two days before she remembered reading Gentle Devotion.

That meant the strange connection, if real, existed before her death.

It had not begun when she transmigrated.

Perhaps her reading the novel was not random.

Perhaps the book had reached her because something already connected the two information systems.

Freya spent one sleepless night thinking about it.

Then she forced herself to stop.

There were too many possible explanations and too little evidence.

The next morning, she went to Sunroom.

Helen handed her a material sample and complained that the developer had changed the cabinet budget again.

Freya nearly hugged her.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'm just happy cabinets obey normal physics."

Helen stared at her.

Freya returned to work.

That evening she told Louis about the timestamp.

He listened quietly.

"Does it change anything?"

Freya thought.

"No."

She had died.

She had awakened here.

She loved him.

Those facts remained the same regardless of mechanism.

Louis nodded.

"Then we'll let the scientists be confused."

Freya smiled.

The universe could keep some secrets.

She had deadlines.

The research team agreed to publish nothing about the anomalous fragments until provenance questions were resolved. Freya appreciated the restraint. Extraordinary claims attracted attention quickly, and attention had already caused enough trouble around Northwind to last several lifetimes.

Freya made a note of the development and returned to the practical work in front of her. She had learned that a complicated life became manageable only when she separated what she knew, what she suspected, and what she could actually do next. Louis respected that habit, even when his instinct was to solve everything immediately. For now, they chose the next useful step and left the unanswered part where it belonged.

Freya made a note of the development and returned to the practical work in front of her. She had learned that a complicated life became manageable only when she separated what she knew, what she suspected, and what she could actually do next. Louis respected that habit, even when his instinct was to solve everything immediately. For now, they chose the next useful step and left the unanswered part where it belonged.