The silver light did not die. It lingered like a memory too stubborn to fade, spilling across the fractured void where Elaria now stood. Each step she took made the ground ripple beneath her feet, not with motion but with hesitation, as if the world itself were unsure of her right to exist in this place. Her body felt weightless and heavy at the same time, tethered to nothing, held only by the pulse of her own breath — or what she thought was her breath.

She opened her mouth to call Kael, ...