Galathea remained suspended in the exact center of the Core.
For several agonizing seconds, she expected the sensory overload to catch up.
She expected Qavael calling her name. Jadelyn shouting. Alistair… Tansy…
Nothing came.
The world had simply disappeared. There was no warehouse.
There was only an absolute, crushing silence that made her eardrums ache and her skin crawl.
Then, Galathea heard a heartbeat.
It wasn't her own. The rhythm was too slow, too heavy. Another followed. Then another. Hundreds. Thousands. Her pulse spiked.
She could hear them all. A frightened animal. A stranger. All.
Galathea's breathing quickened.
Where the hell am I?
The moment the thought fully formed, the oppressive darkness shifted. The ambient temperature plummeted, and the sterile white lights of an unfamiliar gallery flickered into existence around her.
