The light faded slowly, like the dying echo of a heartbeat.
When Avery could see again, the corridor was gone.
She stood in a vast expanse of mist and shadow — a place without horizon. The air shimmered faintly with drifting motes of light, each one flickering with memories too distant to make sense of. There was no sky, no ground, only the illusion of both.
Avery turned in a slow circle. “Hello?”
The word seemed to vanish before it reached open air.
Somewhere far off, a bell tolled once. The sound was low and cracked, like something ancient remembering itself.
A path formed at her feet — narrow, composed of fractured stone slabs that glowed faintly with runes she didn’t recognize. Each step she took echoed softly, as though the world were hollow beneath her.
The silence pressed in
