The air was thinner here.
As Aria stepped through the wound in the sky, it felt like crossing from breath to silence, from body to thought. Her feet no longer touched earth but glided above a shimmering lattice of starlight. The wound pulsed around her like the heartbeat of an ancient god, colors shifting in unnatural rhythms—crimson, sapphire, silver.
Below her, the world had shrunk into a distant hum. Caleb's voice—shouting her name—was a fading echo, smothered by the vastness that now engulfed her.
She was alone.
Or so she thought.
