Lucien returned to the Origin Core Shrine.
The merged Origin Core fragment floated before him.
In Lucien's hands lay a broken necklace.
A delicate chain. A small balance scale. And several fractured pieces that no longer looked capable of becoming whole.
It belonged to Eirene.
The necklace had broken when they attempted to reach the Eternal Realm in the void.
At the time, Lucien had promised to repair it.
He had only now found the opportunity.
Lucien had sensed something inside the artifact from the moment he first examined the damage.
Authority. Old, immense, and deeply connected to the Origin Core.
That was why he had brought it here.
Lucien placed the fragments within the shrine's light.
Then he activated Structural Insight.
The world unfolded into strings.
•••
Lucien paused.
The broken necklace disappeared beneath an impossible density of structure.
Strings overlapped strings.
Definitions folded inside other definitions.
