Chapter 73: THE EDGE OF BECOMING
The horizon stretched out before them, unbroken and without end, its shine not that of starlight, but a glimmer of something else—something older than light, darker than the void.
The girl’s footprints were silent on the surface, as if the Forkroot had already begun to digest her. But amidst all the stillness, Kaito could sense her tug—a query in motion, awaiting an answer.
"Where are we being taken?" Nyra demanded, her words almost lost in the emptiness of it, as they walked alongside the girl.
"To where the code breaks off," the girl replied, her tone even, as if the weight of the world—and all worlds—were only a footnote. "To where everything begins afresh."
What they were walking was not a road, but a liquid weave of thoughts. They walked from idea to existence, a place where the landscape itself was as fluid as memory.
The trees, the rocks, and even the sky shifted gently, as if the whole world was part of a dream trying to settle into place—like it wasn’t sure what it was supposed to be yet.
A low, slight thrum seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere simultaneously, echoing through the earth beneath their feet. Through the air. Through their own bodies.
"I believed we were outside of the system," Kaito said, the gravity of his words sinking the peculiar atmosphere they were in. "But this. This is like it’s attached to something."
The girl did not look at him. She just kept going, her voice returning to him like a hushed wind. "You are still within it. You have always been within it."
Kaito frowned, her words sinking deep into him and stirring something he could not quite explain. It was like a memory trying to surface—something important he had forgotten, just out of reach.
He looked over at Nyra, who stared back at him with equal confusion. But there was something else, as well—something deeper in her eyes. A flicker of recognition. Of understanding. Perhaps even acceptance.