The light around Evelyn stabilized into a soft, pulsing glow—warm, rhythmic, alive.

She felt it accepting her presence, shaping space gently around her rather than consuming her the way old Echo systems once had.

This wasn’t an absorption.

It was… an invitation.

As she fully stepped into the luminous chamber, the physical world softened to a pale outline—Hale’s silhouette on the edge, Gray pacing, the hum of the Hub receding like distant waves.

Then the network drew her ...