The doorway did not look stable enough to trust.
It hung in the air like a wound that had been forced open and then forgotten, its edges flickering in uneven pulses of pale light while thin fractures crawled outward from its frame and dissolved into nothing before reaching the ground. Beyond it, there was no clear destination, only shifting brightness that suggested distance without revealing what lay on the other side.
Escape, but not certainty.
I stood in front of it for a moment, studying the unstable edges, feeling the Veilbind Chain pulse faintly along my arm while Umbra hovered quietly at my side. The bond between us had settled into something less overwhelming now, though it remained ever-present, a second awareness brushing lightly against my thoughts like a shadow that had learned how to exist without consuming the light.
Nyx stepped up beside me, her eyes fixed on the doorway with open distrust.
"That thing is going to collapse the moment we step through," she said.
