ELARA POV
The world disappeared.
One moment I was holding Kael on a collapsing battlefield, my mother's shield blazing around us, the Firstborn's annihilation wave crashing against her desperate magic.
The next—
We were somewhere else.
Not a place exactly. A space. A dimension that existed between existence and non-existence, where the rules of reality bent into shapes my human—former human?—mind couldn't quite process.
"Where are we?" I whispered, though sound didn't work normally here. The words existed more as intent than vibration.
"The Merge," Kael answered, his voice layered over mine, our thoughts blending. "We're inside the transformation itself."
I looked around—or tried to. Vision didn't work the way it should. I could see in all directions simultaneously. Could perceive things that didn't have shape or color or substance but were still undeniably there.
And I could feel Kael.
Not through the bond anymore. Not as a separate entity connected to me.
