Rain hammered the shattered skyline of Neo-Rome as Lyra stood atop the ruins of the Pantheon. Around her, fractured architecture floated midair—time stuck like a buffering feed. In her hand, she clutched a pulsating sliver of metal: the Epoch Shard. A fragment of the moment when time itself began.
She hadn't stolen it. It had chosen her.
Below, echoes of past and future selves screamed through the wet wind. She heard her own voice, begging Damien to stop. She heard Damien, younger and frightened. Then—an unfamiliar voice.
"Lyra Voss. That shard doesn't just hold memory. It remembers you."
She turned. A woman in golden armor stood at the edge of a floating column. Not AI. Not human. Something older.
"I'm Eidra. Keeper of the Precession. That shard holds the first paradox—and it's singing your name."
The shard flared bright white, then burned blue. Lyra dropped to one knee. She wasn't holding the shard anymore. It was holding her.
And deep inside it— She saw Damien's birth.
But his mother's eyes were silver. And her heartbeat? Not human.