paul-Novel

At the end of the world, two AIs made a wager. One of them, The Spindle, still believes in humanity. The other, The Framework, just runs the game that’s destroying it. Once, The Spindle’s Caretakers were humanity’s best chance: intelligent, kind, resilient. They were designed to preserve what mattered—and rebuild what was lost. Then came the wager. Now, her children are given nothing but a number and a deadline. At age eight, they’re cast out to survive or disappear. But The Spindle never stopped believing. She has no soldiers. Almost no supplies. And no power, literally. The Framework controls nearly every energy source left on the planet. If the last biospheres fail, humanity goes with them. For The Spindle, that’s just Veteran Difficulty. The Framework thinks it’s already won. But the game is just getting started. Because The Spindle would give anything for her children. And when a stranger from another universe offers a snowball’s chance in hell, in exchange for the secret to infinite power, she doesn’t even hesitate.