The second pillar did not wait for permission, and perhaps that was the point, because the moment I stepped closer, the chamber folded in on itself with a quiet inevitability that felt less like movement and more like surrender, as though the Temple had decided that resistance was unnecessary now that it had begun to understand me.
Nyx appeared beside me a heartbeat later, though her presence felt different now, sharper in some ways, but also more distant, as if the invisible thread that anchored her to me had loosened just enough to be noticeable.
She looked around slowly, her gaze calculating, but there was a tension in her posture that had not been there before, a quiet unease that she did not bother to hide this time.
"I do not like this," she said, her voice low, controlled, but lacking its usual certainty.
