The four words hung in the air of the deep chamber like something that refused to dissolve, and for a long moment, no one moved at all.
*The Last Reader Returns.*
Aether looked between the Traveler, the Architect, and the Forgotten Reader, each of them frozen in their own particular expression of disbelief, and felt his own uncertainty deepen with every passing second of their silence.
"Who is the Last Reader?" he finally asked.
No one answered immediately. The Architect's face remained drained of color, his usual composure nowhere to be found. The Traveler stood as still as stone, his gaze fixed on the silver page as though he expected the name to vanish again the moment he looked away. It was the Forgotten Reader who finally broke the silence, though his voice, when it came, carried a weight Aether had rarely heard from him.
