A child stood beneath a silver sky, alone in a place that felt both impossibly ancient and strangely new, as though it existed before the concept of age had been invented at all. A voice spoke from somewhere beyond the edges of the vision, calm and patient, asking a question that felt, somehow, like the most important question that had ever been asked.
"What is the purpose of a name?"
The child considered the question for a moment, and then answered with a simplicity that struck Liora harder than any grand philosophical explanation could have.
"So no one is lost forever."
The vision ended as abruptly as it had begun, releasing Liora back into her own body, back into the hollow at the heart of the garden, her hand still resting against the vast silver root. She stood there for a long moment, breathing unsteadily, turning the child's answer over in her mind, feeling its weight settle into her the way only the truest things ever seemed to.
