The chamber was quiet—too quiet for what was happening inside.
The runes etched along the walls flickered like dying embers, their light dimming with every pulse of the heart that shouldn't have been beating. Xavier's fingers twitched first. Then his breath hitched, shallow and uneven, as if he were drowning in silence.
And then the storm began inside his mind.
Flashes.
Memories.
Faces.
Viola, smirking under a broken neon sign.
Reva, crying under the red moon.
Angel, whispering something against his neck.
Lyra, smiling with food on her lips.
All of them blurring together—until they weren't faces anymore, just echoes.
Then came the darkness.
It swallowed everything, thick and infinite. Xavier felt himself sinking through it, no sense of direction, no feeling of time. Just falling. Faster. Further. Until—
Light.
He wasn't in the chamber anymore.
