**Lyra's Point of View

The first breath I took in the Echo-Verse made me gasp and hurt my lungs. It wasn't really air. It was the ghost of air, thin, cold, and tasting like static and old graves. The psychic pressure hit me right away and was huge. It felt like a weight on my soul that would crush my mind. The golden thread that connected me to Kenny, my lifeline, shone brightly in my mind, like a single, defiant star in a sea of gray.

The Sanctum around me was dead inside. The glowing runes ...