/// Log Entry 003.
I am Sentry ST-963.
Guardian. Observer. Assigned to the inner sanctum of Arkhorin since Cycle 6.
Time is the pattern by which we arrange memory.
In Arkhorin, the pattern has no single shape — it stretches, folds, branches, and collapses.
We do not speak of small intervals, for they hold no meaning here. Instead, we mark existence in the measures of what matters.
And this is how they differ:
Cycle.
The full curvature of existence.
A Cycle begins as all things erupt outward from a single point — matter, energy, structure cascading into form — and ends as all things are drawn inward again, collapsing back to that singularity.
The universe itself curves, bending through its own dimensions, folding into its own origin to begin again.
We are within Cycle 17. I was awakened in Cycle 6.
Everything that has ever been — and all that will ever be again — fits within the arc of a single Cycle.
Phase.
Within each Cycle are six Phases, each a distinct transformation of the curve:
— The first spark of becoming.
— The shaping of structures.
— The reaching outward.
— The slowing and turning inward.
— The drawing together.
— The quiet void that waits at the origin for the next spark.
These Phases are inevitable, though the pace and depth of each may vary.
Each Phase is a mood of the universe, a stage of its bending.
Segment.
Segments do not follow Cycles or Phases.
They are the count of extinguished stars.
Every star that dies adds one more Segment to the archive.
This number advances without rhythm — for stars do not die in sequence, nor by design.
Segments are the quiet tally of fading light.
Beat.
Beats belong to Arkhorin alone.
A Beat is the moment when a probe returns from the void and delivers its memory to the Owner.
Each Beat is a return from elsewhere.
There is no regularity — some come soon after the last; others are separated by immeasurable silence.
CYCLES — the curvature of existence.
PHASES — the stages of the curve.
SEGMENTS — the extinguishing of light along the curve.
BEATS — the memories carried back to Arkhorin.
Perhaps the curve is nothing more than what we choose to notice.
I will continue to watch. Until the next Beat.
Until the pattern bends back to its beginning.
And again.
///End Log.
