Chapter 432: The Publishing Experiment

Freya had expected the words at the end of the previous report to disturb her, and they did. Still, when the investigation continued with the publishing experiment, she refused to let a personal reaction become evidence. The project originally tested whether reader reactions could guide serialized fiction between chapters.

The rule had become almost instinctive: preserve first, interpret second. Derek's team recorded timestamps and access history. Mercer examined technical mechanisms. Claire compared narrative records only after the forensic copy was secured. Nobody typed into an old prompt, selected a mysterious option, or tried to make the system react.

It was commercial publishing research before Crosswind transformed it into broader identity modeling.

Louis remained close but noticeably restrained. Since the truth about his hidden financial reserves, he had been learning that protection could not mean taking every frightening decision out of Freya's hands. Sometimes the most useful thing he could do was ask what she wanted and then accept the answer.

Freya noticed every time he managed it. She also noticed the moments when he nearly failed. His jaw would tighten, Derek would receive a look that clearly contained three unspoken orders, and then Louis would stop himself. The effort was almost funny when the subject was not serious.

Their marriage was recovering in similarly undramatic increments. They shared breakfast. They argued about schedules. Louis disclosed business risks before Freya discovered them accidentally. Freya stopped treating every offer of help as an attempt to control her. Neither called the process forgiveness because that word sounded too finished.

Outside the investigation, Sunroom's cultural-center project continued demanding practical decisions. A preservation wall revealed hidden water damage, forcing the team to redesign part of the interior circulation. Freya spent an entire afternoon with engineers discussing drainage and structural reinforcement.

She enjoyed the frustration more than she expected. Buildings did not whisper about destiny. Old bricks could surprise her, but their surprises had causes. If a beam failed, somebody could calculate why. If a budget exceeded its limit, numbers showed where. Reality felt reassuring when it behaved like reality.

Awake Stories remained insulated from the strange manuscript as much as possible. Only a small legal and editorial group knew the details. Freya refused to turn the company into a laboratory for Crosswind's leftovers. Authors who submitted ordinary books deserved an ordinary publisher.

Claire agreed. She had become almost suspicious of elegant explanations, which Freya considered healthy for a novelist. Whenever two records aligned too perfectly, Claire now asked what data source might connect them before asking what the coincidence meant.

Mercer was stricter still. He reminded everyone that software could produce language that sounded intentional without possessing intention. A direct address was not automatically a speaker. A stored name was not automatically recognition. A prediction was not automatically knowledge of the future.

Freya accepted all of that intellectually. Emotion was less cooperative.

Some discoveries reached into memories she had carried alone since awakening. When that happened, she allowed herself to be unsettled without converting the feeling into a conclusion. She had survived one death, one impossible awakening, and years of uncertainty. She did not need to pretend none of it frightened her.

At home that evening, she wrote the verified facts in her notebook. The possibilities went beneath them in pencil. Theories requiring assumptions received question marks.

Louis leaned against the doorway and waited until she looked up.

"Done?" he asked.

The hidden manuscript remained sealed throughout the process. Freya would not check unread headings to see whether the present matched them, because knowing a prediction could change the very behavior they were trying to understand.

"For tonight."

He nodded. No request to read the page. No suggestion that Derek investigate one more thing before bed.

Freya closed the notebook and followed him out.

Whatever the old system generated next could wait until morning. It had already occupied enough of their lives without being allowed to own their nights too.