The light closed over them like water. Gold and blue formed whirlpools, vortices, rings – and Alaric stood in the middle of it all.
No ground, no sky – only frequency.
He saw Lina.
She was no longer purely light, no longer purely human. Her hair glowed like sunlight underwater, her eyes carried the pattern of the Heart Sequence: golden lines flickering like tiny lightning bolts within.
And then there was Malrik.
Still, clear, the silhouette of a man made of cold glass.
His gaze was no longer anger – it was pain.
"The field is collapsing inward," said Lina. "It's trying to synchronize us."
Alaric felt the pressure increasing on his chest. "If it does that, we'll lose ourselves. None of us will remain."
Or we will all remain, Malrik whispered. In one form.
"No fusion," Alaric hissed. "I won't become part of your perfection."
I offer no cage, Malrik replied calmly. I offer peace.
"Peace is just silence without meaning."
