The transition didn't happen in a quiet laundromat or a basement this time.
It happened in the middle of a crowded subway car at rush hour.
Adriana felt the attack before she saw it.
The golden pulse in her chest the First Memory suddenly lurched, turning from a warm hum to a frantic vibration.
The air in the subway car thickened, turning the color of bruised plums.
"They are coming," Vaelen's voice hissed, sounding strained.
"The Void does not take kindly to being fed light."
The "Mundane" world began to peel away like wet wallpaper.
The commuters around her didn't disappear, but they were suddenly encased in grey, translucent cocoons of Static.
They were frozen in time, their thoughts suspended in mid-air like dust motes.
Then, the doors at the end of the car didn't just open they dissolved.
Three figures stepped through.
They weren't like Malphas, who wore a suit and a human face.
These were Hollows ancient, predatory entities of the Unseen that looked like tall, spindly shadows made of jagged glass and cold smoke.
They didn't have eyes they had empty sockets that pulled the light out of the air.
"The Anchor," the lead Hollow whispered, its voice sounding like metal grinding on stone. "Give us the Source, and your soul may remain intact.
Refuse, and we will turn your body into a graveyard of echoes."
Adriana stood her ground, her hand over her glowing heart.
"I am the Bridge.
You cannot cross here."
The lead Hollow lunged.
It moved with a sickening, liquid speed. Adriana didn't have a weapon, but as she raised her hand in reflex, the First Memory responded.
A wave of pure, geometric light erupted from her palm a physical manifestation of Resonance.
It hit the Hollow, and for a second, the creature didn't just break
it remembered.
Its jagged edges softened into the shape of a man it had been eons ago before the Hardening took him.
He let out a single, beautiful note of music before shattering into starlight.
"She is weaving the light!"
the other two hissed, circling her.
The train car began to shake.
The "Unseen" world was trying to pull the subway car off the tracks of reality and into the Void.
Outside the windows, the dark tunnels of the city were replaced by a screaming abyss of grey Static.
"Adriana, you cannot just repel them!" Vaelen shouted, appearing as a shield of white noise in front of her.
"The more you fight, the more you drain the Memory.
You must Harmonize."
"How?" she cried, ducking as a claw of shadow sliced through the plastic seat next to her head.
"Don't push the light out,"
Vaelen instructed, his form flickering as he blocked a blow.
"Pull the Static in.
Neutralize the void with the frequency of the Earth!"
Adriana closed her eyes.
It went against every instinct. She let the shield drop.
The two remaining Hollows shrieked in triumph and dove toward her chest, their jagged claws inches from her heart.
Instead of flinching, Adriana opened her heart wide.
She stopped seeing them as monsters and started seeing them as what they were: profound, aching vacuums of forgotten wisdom.
"I hear you," she whispered.
She grabbed the smoky wrists of the Hollows.
The cold was agonizing, like dipping her arms into liquid nitrogen.
But she didn't let go.
She forced the golden vibration of the First Memory into the vacuum of their bodies.
The subway car filled with a sound like a cathedral choir hitting a perfect chord.
The grey Static turned to gold.
The jagged glass of the Hollows melted into soft, glowing mist.
The train screeched to a halt.
The "Mundane" snapped back into place.
The doors opened at a perfectly normal station.
The commuters blinked, shaking their heads as if they'd just woken up from a nap, unaware that a cosmic battle had just taken place in their midst.
Adriana fell back into her seat, gasping for air. Her veins were glowing a soft violet.
She looked at Vaelen, who was leaning against the subway map, looking diminished and ancient.
"They won't stop," Adriana said, her voice trembling.
"No," Vaelen agreed.
"You've shown them that the Light can be touched.
Now, every hungry thing in the Unseen knows your name."