The world reassembled like a memory remembering itself.

At first there was nothing—only the faint rhythm of breath, the sensation of weight returning after eternity. Then, light.

Soft, living light, diffused through a sky that no longer shimmered with static but moved, like the surface of calm water reflecting dawn.

Hale opened his eyes.

He lay on his back in tall grass that wasn’t really grass—threads of luminescent data bending with the motion of invisible wind. Above him, the sky ...