It began with one note.
Not music, not computer code—just sound. A pure tone, low and slow, like the breath of something sleeping far back in time.
Then it resonated through the sky at twilight, not loud, but clear. The kind of noise that stopped you wherever you were.
It made people stop what they were doing.
Kael was in the middle of checking a repeating crack in the terrain that kept looping back on itself.
He had already gone through part of it, trying to figure out where the glitch started and how deep it went, but it wasn't behaving like normal code.
The deeper he traced it, the more it seemed to lead him in circles—like the landscape was folding in on itself.
Iris had just started syncing a group of memories near the Archive Grove.
Nyra had been leading a group of new initiates along the Listening Field.
Kaito leaned against the entrance of the newly formed Answerless Hall, his hands against stone that felt questions.
And Echo—Echo was already looking up.
