The gate behind Kael sealed with a sound that didn't echo—it folded.
A compression of space and thought.
Aila and Oran stood with him, but none of them spoke.
This wasn't like Layer Zero. Or even Foldroot's entry chamber. This space didn't feel constructed.
It felt confessed.
The walls breathed with a kind of suppressed shame. Like they remembered what they'd once done and now waited to see if someone would forgive them for it.
Oran exhaled slowly. "Is it just me, or does this place feel like it's... apologizing?"
Kael stepped forward. "It's not. It's testing whether we'll remember what it can't forget."
---
As they moved deeper, the corridor stopped being solid.
Not disappeared—just conceptually unanchored.
Steps clicked against platforms that weren't there moments ago.
Lights sparked from nowhere, revealing glimpses of memory fragments hovering like broken crystal.
A girl screaming in a lab.
A child hiding from recursion sync pulses.
