Liora didn't trust the present.
That was new.
Up until now, the fracture had lived in motion—in the space between thought and action, in the quiet theft of decision, in the subtle guidance that made her body move before she knew why. It had been something she could observe, something she could test.
Something she could fight.
But now—
Now the problem wasn't what she was doing.
It was what she remembered.
She stood where she had been, the ground steady beneath her feet, the air unchanged, the horizon still sealed with that same faint pressure pressing outward from the other side. Cairis remained close enough that she could feel his presence without looking. Kael stood a short distance away, silent, watchful, his attention not just on her, but on everything that might shift without warning.
Nothing moved.
Nothing reacted.
Nothing changed.
And that was wrong.
Because Liora remembered it changing.
Her brow tightened slightly.
Not in confusion.
In focus.
"…It moved."
