Goddess Leyna vanished.
The last speck of her snow-like light faded into the air, and the world she had formed for them began to crumble.
Fine cracks spread across the space around Kiaria and Diala like lines on shattered glass. The gentle winter sky above them flickered. The ground beneath their feet trembled as if it were no longer truly there.
The space created by the box was collapsing.
The cube of wooden light in the air vibrated faintly.
Formations that had been spread and fused moments ago began to reverse–layer by layer, array by array. The complex structures they had watched forming earlier now unraveled as if someone had pulled time backward.
Large composite formations dissolved into smaller ones.
One thousand twenty-four pieces folded into five hundred twelve.
Five hundred twelve into two hundred fifty-six.
Two hundred fifty-six into one hundred twenty-eight–
Until all of it compressed back into the strange, irregular wooden box they had first seen.
