The moment understanding formed between us, the Temple reacted violently.
Every silver fracture running through the chamber ignited simultaneously, flooding the collapsing ruins with blinding light while the Veilbind Chain wrapped tighter around my arm and chest like a living thing attempting to anchor itself against a storm. The connection between myself and the fracture-born deepened instantly afterward, not by choice but through resonance, because once recognition existed, separation no longer came easily.
And what I felt through that connection nearly shattered me.
Loneliness.
Not ordinary loneliness.
Not the temporary isolation people suffered during grief or distance.
This was something absolute.
Something so vast and ancient that language itself struggled to contain it.
