The tear swallowed Sarya.
Reality snapped shut behind her.
The giant eye disappeared.
The Architect vanished.
The wall of names dissolved into darkness.
For several seconds, there was only motion.
Violent and chaotic.
Unlike every previous transit she had experienced, this one lacked guidance.
No pathways.
No bridge corridors.
No Nexus systems managing the transfer.
She wasn't traveling through reality.
She was falling between realities.
The difference became obvious immediately.
Fragments rushed past her.
Broken timelines.
Shattered possibilities.
Memories detached from their owners.
Entire futures collapsing into nothingness.
The debris of existence itself drifted through the void.
Sarya twisted as another fragment passed nearby.
For an instant she saw a version of Earth.
Then it vanished.
Another appeared.
A future where humanity had expanded across thousands of worlds.
Gone.
Another.
A reality where the Nexus never formed.
Gone.
