Somewhere Else – The Corridor's End
Adam stepped forward.
Chronark didn't follow. He just stood there—watching, silent, like he'd already seen this before in some ghost of time that never got written down.
The corridor began to change.
It wasn't sudden, just subtle. The arches of starlight above started warping—twisting slower, like space itself was stretching to hold its breath. The shimmer ahead—the Core—grew brighter. Not violently. Not like an explosion. But like it knew it had company. Like it was waking up.
The light wasn't white.
It was every color Adam had ever seen.
And colors he hadn't.
They shifted with no pattern. They breathed. They pulled at his memory. One moment it was gold like sunlight through his sister's hair. The next, it was the pale blue of the sky from a planet that had never existed but felt like home.
Adam didn't stop.
The corridor began responding.
