Darkness folded around Aurora.
The recursion fold inverted, dragging her body through compressed timelines and ruptured strands of space. Her Dominion flared instinctively, forming shields within shields, silver geometry cracking against the force pulling her apart. Her scream never left her lips – the collapse swallowed sound, leaving only vibration in her bones.
Through the blur of tearing light, she saw Veylor's silhouette ahead of her, perfectly still, chaos threads drifting from his shoulders like smoke from burnt gods. He held the Pre-Origin shard in his hand, its light flickering faint as if suffocating.
She reached toward him, fury rising behind her terror. Her Dominion surged forward, lashing out with a spear of pure spatial compression. The attack struck his back and vanished into his body like rain absorbed by sand.
He didn't even turn.
