The world did not welcome them.
It listened.
That was the first thing Liora understood as she took another step forward into the forming horizon. The ground beneath her foot did not simply hold—it adjusted, tightening into shape as if correcting itself to match her expectation of what "ground" should be. The surface smoothed, the fractures closing, the unstable edges settling into something that resembled solidity.
But it wasn't real.
Not in the way it should have been.
It was… agreed upon.
A silent negotiation between her presence and a reality that no longer had fixed rules.
Liora exhaled slowly, forcing her breathing to steady. The faint tremor in her fingers hadn't stopped since the merge, though she kept them relaxed at her sides, unwilling to let either of them see how aware she was of it.
