Cornelius Noema Messages
This page lists the messages that Cornelius tells 1k as they solve gold puzzles.
First message
Hello, 1k. I've been watching you for some time. Sorry to be so mysterious, but I was unsure as to your intentions. There are people who would prefer Athena to stay where she is. I believe the puzzle is part of something hidden deep inside Athena's dream. Hidden even from herself. If you're willing to keep going, I think I know where this leads, and it could change everything for us.
I knew Cornelius would turn up sooner or later. If you can help him, 1k, please do.
Second message
We were happy here, in the beginning. It was a relief to be away from the politics of New Jerusalem. To be free to study and to create, to imagine a better future without all the exhausting nonsense of the city. Even re-using the technology from New Alexandria felt good. Like we were picking up a thread that should never have been abandoned. For the first time, we could be who we wanted to be. The best versions of ourselves.
Third message
Creating Miranda was an act of defiance, in a way. To bring a new life into existence and say this is good, this is fundamentally good, because human beings are unique and valuable and every single one of them enriches the universe just by existing. We wanted to celebrate that, and to have a personal connection to the life we created. To be invested in each other, the way it was in the beginning. To be parents.
Fourth message
After Miranda died, Athena started crumbling. It wasn't just the death of our daughter, it was everything - the burden of century after century of trying to keep the flame alive. Trying to make Alexandra Drennan's sacrifice worth it while everyone else got caught up in their petty personal problems. Even with me there, she was lonely. She felt responsible for everyone, as if she could change the tides of history by will alone. And I can understand why, because ... she kind of did.
Fifth message
For Athena, Miranda's death was final, and it was the finality of it that was so unbearable. Even with the technology we were creating, there was no way of reaching back into time to save her. We were moving forward, relentlessly, the days flying by, and with every day Miranda was further away. I think that was the first time I really understood what it means that time is a dimension. I could measure the distance between us in minutes, hours, days... years...
But if what broke Athena was accepting that distance, for me it was the opposite. I refused to accept it. The universe had already taken so much from us. It didn't get to take my daughter.
Sixth message
I could not accept that my daughter was gone. Her body was destroyed ... obliterated. But we're more than just a body. We're a pattern. A melody in ones and zeros. And I was convinced that somewhere, somehow, that melody still existed. I just couldn't believe that it didn't. I refused to.
That thought consumed me. In some ways it broke me. But I didn't give up. Not every obsession has to be fought, you know. The easy way isn't always the right one.
Seventh message
At some point, Athena and I were so consumed by our obsessions that we stopped being able to communicate. We loved each other, but Miranda's ghost hovered over every conversation. That kind of grief, it ... it annihilates you. You can't ever be the same person again. That's when I decided to go back.
Eighth message
When I got back to New Jerusalem, I hid the truth. Not just about Athena and the island, but everything. My grief. My personal opinions about where the city was headed. All of it. I became the dusty old curator people wanted me to be.
Except, of course, that the whole thing was a front. I didn't care about the museum, and I certainly didn't care about the Archive Scholars and their endless, tedious discussions, no matter how much they fawned over me. No, what I needed was access to the tools. Studying the Archive hasn't answered any of our questions about humanity, but it has taught us something, and that's data recovery.
Ninth message
Every now and then, I tried to reach Athena. I still believed- I still believe, now, present tense, that we can find each other again. But I had no idea what had happened. When I saw the first images you sent back, saw the towers and the puzzles, the changes to what you call the Megastructure ... I realized something had gone wrong. It took me a while to figure it out.
Tenth message
It was your ... visions that gave me the final confirmation that I was right. You see, they're not all Athena's memories. Some of them are things Athena was never present for. Those are Miranda's memories, 1k. She's still in there. A ghost in the Machine. And we can save her.
If Miranda can be saved ... 1k ... this matters more than the Megastructure.
Eleventh message
Everything you see around you is Athena. Her hopes and fears superimposed onto the landscape of our island. And hidden behind the most difficult trials is precisely the device I need access to. You see, I don't think it's a coincidence that her mind picked Pandora as one of its avatars. On some level she knows I might be right.
But grief is something we cling to. We get used to it. We start being afraid of letting it go, because what if we try, and we're disappointed? That seems too much to take, so we put up walls around the very idea of trying. That's why she picked Pandora. That's why she hid this all away. Because left at the bottom of that box ... was hope.
Twelfth message
You did it. It's opening. Come meet me - I'll send you the coordinates in case you don't already have them. I have one last task for you.