The light swallowed everything.

It wasn’t brightness anymore — it was density, a weight of illumination so vast that it drowned color, space, even the idea of direction. Elaria felt herself falling and standing still at once. The world inverted around her, then folded inward like a page turned by an unseen hand.

She could still feel Rhovan’s grip on her wrist — tight, grounding — though even that was starting to dissolve. His outline flickered between flame and shadow, as though he ...