The Answer stood inside the Garden, and something about that fact alone struck Sarya as fundamentally wrong.
She had spent weeks understanding the Answer as something that stood apart from the process it observed — watching, waiting, evaluating from a threshold it never crossed. Even when it had stepped off the First Road entirely, it had done so to release the bridge back to those willing to walk it, not to enter the sanctuary that Elias had spent his whole existence protecting.
Now it had crossed into the place that represented connection itself, and everything about that transgression felt heavier than the moment seemed to warrant.
The stranger remained several steps back, tense and watchful. Elias hadn't moved at all.
