The first probe entities materialized through the dimensional barriers like nightmares given form—except nightmares were comprehensible, finite things that existed within the boundaries of consciousness. These were something else entirely.
Zara felt her dual-state consciousness recoil from the approaching force, her transcendent awareness struggling to process entities that existed beyond every category of existence she had ever encountered. The Wounded Crown pulsed against her forehead, its accumulated wisdom integrating with her own capabilities to create something that was neither pure experience nor pure innovation.
"Twelve entities," she announced, her voice carrying harmonics that resonated through both dimensions simultaneously. "No—twenty-four. They exist in multiple states of non-existence."
