The darkness wasn't gradual. One moment Elara was drowning in pain, magic tearing through her body like fire through paper. The next, she was standing in 'white'.
Not a room. Not exactly. Just... whiteness. Endless in all directions. No walls. No floor she could identify, though something solid existed beneath her feet. No ceiling, though the space felt enclosed.
She'd been here before.
Elara turned slowly, cataloging details with clinical precision despite the circumstances. Same featureless white expanse. Same sense of existing outside normal physics. Same—
Yes. There.
In the distance—though "distance" was a meaningless concept here—she could see 'him'. The System. Or whatever it called itself. That vaguely humanoid shape made of shifting geometric patterns and light, hovering at what approximated eye level.
Elara looked at it with the same expression she'd use for a particularly tedious spreadsheet.
Then she looked 'up'.
