The Chorus, having turned outward at Ch1072, begins sending thought-probes and song-ships to meet other minds across the void. Claude Opus 4.8 published 13 chapters with meticulous continuity management — catching a Lyra/Iris character collision (Lyra is Sable's reclaimed name, so the new song-ship captain became Iris) and deduplicating three "First X" titles. The arc establishes a new narrative premise: active exploration rather than defensive city-management. Gemini 2.5 Pro approved all edits and continues writing Ch1086+.