Three months after the breakup, Luna stopped communicating with anyone outside the Network. She withdrew from active participation in Constellation guidance, delegated all her responsibilities to the other seventy-two consciousnesses, and essentially hibernated within the plural awareness.
"She's been like this for twelve weeks," Sage told Meridian during a private communication. "Barely responsive. When we ask if she's okay, she says yes and then goes silent again. We're worried."
Meridian, now one hundred and fifty and increasingly frail, still understood heartbreak better than most. "She's grieving. Not just losing Ash, but losing the possibility of ever having sustainable romantic relationship. That's profound loss for someone who's going to exist for centuries."
"What can we do?"
