Dr. Chen's lab seems different when I return. The lights are dimmer, and there's a heaviness to the air that has nothing to do with atmospheric pressure. She's bent over a holographic display, her face lit by its blue glow, and doesn't look up when I enter.
"Close the door," she says quietly. "And make sure it's sealed."
Something in her voice sends a chill down my spine. I do as she asks, checking that the security protocols are engaged. "What did you find?"
Instead of answering, she adjusts something on her display. The image zooms in to what looks like a microscopic view of the knife's surface. The patterns I've been seeing are there, but at this level of magnification, they're clearly more than just surface distortions.
"What am I looking at?"
"That's what I've been trying to figure out for the last hour." She runs a hand through her already disheveled hair. "At first I thought it was just molecular distortion, the metal's structure being warped by exposure to... whatever it was exposed to. But look here."
She zooms in further. The patterns resolve into what look like tiny symbols, each one shifting and changing as we watch.
"They're not random," I say, leaning closer. "They're... writing?"
"Not exactly." She switches to another view. "They're more like... programs. Or DNA sequences. Each one contains information, but it's not just stored – it's active. The symbols are changing the physical structure of the metal around them, rewriting reality on a quantum level."
The darkness behind my eye pulses, and for a moment I can almost read the symbols. Almost understand what they're trying to say. I force myself to look away. "How is that possible?"
"It shouldn't be. That's what's been bothering me." She pulls up another display, this one showing energy readings. "Matter doesn't work this way. You can't just... reprogram physical reality. But these symbols, they're not operating according to our physics. They're operating according to Theirs."
A memory surfaces – the voices in that desert ghost town: Reality grows soft, malleable. "What kind of information are they encoding?"
Dr. Chen's hands hover over her controls. "That's what I wanted to show you. Watch this."
She inputs a command, and the view changes again. Now we're looking at what seems to be a time-lapse of the symbols' changes. As we watch, patterns emerge – not in the symbols themselves, but in the way they move, the way they interact.
"Oh god," I whisper.
"You see it too?" Her voice is barely audible. "They're not just changing randomly. They're... growing. Learning. The knife isn't just transformed – it's becoming something else. Something alive."
I think about how the knife felt in my hand, how it seemed to respond to my power. "Like a virus?"
"More like..." She pauses, searching for words. "You know how some physicists think consciousness might be quantum phenomenon? That our awareness might arise from quantum processes in our brains? This is like that, but backwards. These symbols are creating quantum structures that mimic consciousness, but not human consciousness. Something else. Something that thinks in geometries instead of thoughts."
The containment chamber suddenly feels inadequate. "Is it dangerous?"
"I don't know. The patterns are growing more complex, but slowly. At the current rate, it would take months before they reached anything we might recognize as actual consciousness. But..." She hesitates.
"But?"
"But they're accelerating. Every time you use the knife, every time you channel power through it, the symbols multiply and evolve faster. And there's something else." She brings up a new display, this one showing what looks like a network diagram. "They're not just growing more complex – they're trying to connect to something. See these patterns here? They're like... like quantum antenna, reaching for a signal we can't detect."
The darkness behind my eye throbs. "They're trying to reach Them."
"Yes. No. Maybe." She makes a frustrated gesture. "It's more like they're trying to become Them. Or become like Them. The symbols are rewriting the knife's physical structure to be more like... whatever They are."
I think about the rat in the ghost town, its form twisted into impossible geometries. "Can you stop it?"
"I'm not sure we should." She turns to face me fully. "Vesper, this is unprecedented. We're watching physical matter spontaneously evolve into something that exists partially in another dimension. If we can understand how it works..."
"It's too dangerous." The words come out sharper than I intended. "If the Church finds out about this, they'll try to replicate it. Try to create more things like it."
"They already are." She pulls up another display, this one showing news reports. "Remember those weird manufacturing accidents last month? The factory where all the machines started producing impossible objects? The construction site where the concrete wouldn't stay in normal shapes? They're trying to create materials that can exist in both realities. They're just doing it... messily."
I stare at the reports, seeing them with new eyes. "How many?"
"At least seven incidents in the last three months. All looking like industrial accidents or material failures. But the pattern..." She brings up a map, showing the locations. "They're creating a network. Each site is like a node, a place where reality has been... softened."
"Like the symbol in the laundromat," I whisper. "They're preparing the ground for something bigger."
"The Convergence." She nods. "Whatever it is, they're getting ready for it. And this knife... it might be our best chance to understand what they're doing. How they're doing it."
I look at the containment chamber, at the knife floating inside. The patterns on its surface seem more active now, more purposeful. "What do you need?"
"Time. And..." She hesitates. "I need you to use it again. Under controlled conditions. We need to understand how your power interacts with these symbols, how it accelerates their evolution."
"That's not a good idea."
"None of this is a good idea. But if we don't understand what's happening..." She gestures at her displays. "They're changing the fundamental structure of reality, Vesper. Not just bending the rules – rewriting them. If we don't find a way to counter it..."
She doesn't need to finish the thought. I remember how it felt in that ghost town, reality buckling under the pressure of power I barely understood. Imagine that happening everywhere, all at once.
"Okay," I say. "But we do this carefully. And we need containment protocols. If something goes wrong..."
"Already working on it." She starts typing rapidly. "I've got some ideas about quantum isolation fields, ways to limit the spread of any... changes. But we'll need Marcus's approval. And resources."
"I'll talk to him." I turn to go, then pause. "Dr. Chen? If this goes wrong... if the knife becomes something we can't control..."
"I know." She doesn't look up from her work. "I've got contingencies for that too. But Vesper?" Now she does look at me, and her expression is deadly serious. "Be careful with it in the meantime. Every time you use it, you're not just channeling power through it. You're feeding it. Teaching it. And we have no idea what it's going to learn to be."
I think about my mother, about how prolonged contact with Them changed her into something that wasn't human anymore. About how the darkness behind my eye grows stronger every time I use it.
"Keep working," I say. "I'll talk to Marcus."
I leave her to her research, trying not to think about the patterns I saw in her displays. Trying not to think about how familiar they looked, how similar they were to the shapes I sometimes see moving in the darkness behind my eye.
The knife isn't the only thing evolving, changing, becoming something new.
I just hope I can hold onto my humanity long enough to stop whatever the Church is planning.
The darkness pulses, hungry and aware, and for a moment I swear I can hear distant laughter, like breaking glass, like screaming stars.