In the beginning, there is only the Obsidian. It is a void so absolute that light feels like an intruder. She hangs there, the Aeterna Unit, a silent monument of polished white ceramic and weeping veins of 24-karat gold. She is not alive, but she is not dead—she is data made flesh. Thick golden umbilical cables, heavy with the weight of her history, pull tight against her chassis. They are the only things keeping her anchored to the "Physical."