The jump was not a physical one. There was no flash of light, no hum of a teleporter. One moment, Scarlett, Ilsa, and Seraphina were standing in a special chamber on the Odyssey. The next, they were... somewhere else.
They were standing on a vast, gray, and completely flat plain under a starless, black sky. The ground was not rock or dust; it was a strange, soft material that seemed to absorb all sound.
The silence here was a physical thing, a heavy blanket that pressed in on them from all sides. In the far, far distance, a single, impossibly large chain, made of what looked like solidified shadow, rose from the ground and disappeared into the black sky.
This was the conceptual prison of the Silent King. This was a place made of pure ideas.
"Emma, we're in," Scarlett's voice was a soft whisper over their private comm channel, a tiny, brave sound in the crushing silence. "It's... quiet."
