Chapter 80: Different
"What?" Kaedros asked, masking his curiosity behind a casual tone. But Thalso had noticed it before, his interest in the Codex especially when he and Nyra had first pointed out the sigil hanging over Kaedros and the others.
And now Thalso had just referred to the Codex as he.
Kaedros smiled faintly, a glint in his blue eyes. "Why do you say impossible?"
Thalso caught it. The curiosity laced beneath Kaedros’s words. Even from within his heavy armor, the tension around his eyes could be felt.
"Ah... that’s just because you came from a world overrun by humans," Thalso said. "So, naturally, we believe the Codex must be human too."
Kaedros leaned back slightly.
Truthfully, no one knew what the Codex was.
Some believed it was a god, others said it was an advanced being. There were even wild theories claiming the Codex was the pinnacle of all higher beings, a universal consciousness of sorts.
But Kaedros preferred a different idea.
To him, the Codex was a force of nature, like gravity, or a flood, or a sandstorm. It acted without bias, affecting lives without warning. But if it wasn’t just a force... if it was sentient, an intelligent being...
That thought sent a chill down his spine.
Because he remembered what happened during his choosing when the Codex and how an unfathomable existence had stared at him.