Darkness did not fall.
Darkness seized.
It swallowed sound first. Then space. Then thought.
Sebastian could not see. Could not move. Could not feel where his body ended.
Only one thing remained.
Her presence.
Not near. Not far.
Divided.
Two heartbeats.
One warm.
One empty.
Then—
Impact.
Light exploded outward.
Sebastian slammed onto solid ground. Air tore into his lungs. Pain flooded his body. He welcomed it.
Pain meant he still existed.
He forced his eyes open.
He stood inside a vast circular chamber. Smooth black stone stretched beneath his feet, carved with glowing lines that moved like living circuits. The ceiling vanished into shadow above.
At the center floated a sphere of fractured reality.
Inside it—
Vivian.
But not one.
Two lights trapped inside one body.
Around the chamber hovered towering beings of shifting light and structure. Not human. Not machines. Their forms changed constantly, like symbols rewriting themselves.
