The crossing ended without warning.
One moment there was pressure and darkness and motion without distance, and the next there was weight.
A room.
Solid ground.
Air.
Natasha gasped.
Her soul was pulled downward with a force that felt both violent and tender, like being wrapped in familiar arms after a long fall. Sensation rushed in all at once. Pain. Warmth. Breath scraping painfully into lungs that had forgotten how to work.
Her eyes flew open.
A ceiling greeted her. Cracked paint. A faint water stain shaped like a crooked star. The soft hum of a generator somewhere nearby.
Earth.
Her fingers twitched. They felt heavy. Real. She raised one hand slowly and stared at it as if it might vanish.
"I am… back," she whispered.
Memory slammed into her like a wave.
Dreams.
Too real to be dreams. A tower of abyss. A mage with long blue hair. A different sky. A different name.
And Nradrey.
Her chest tightened.
