Oracle's Peak was not on any map. He found it only by following a star that didn't belong to their sky. The wind howled strangely the higher he climbed, as though whispering secrets too ancient for mortal minds. He ascended the glass-like stone staircase that shimmered like starlight, each step colder than the last. At the summit, he found Madame Threnya.
She was blind, or so it seemed. Her eyes were empty mirrors reflecting stars that no longer existed. Around her swirled embers of time, frozen in glimmers that sparked and faded.
"You shattered the script," she said without greeting. "The world noticed. Others did too."
David was stunned. "You can see the system?"
"I see beyond it," she whispered, running her hand across a flame that hovered midair. "You were never meant to be here. But you are not alone."
She warned him of a force that devoured alternate timelines and of a prison where remnants of heroes—other versions of David—were trapped. And he needed to find it. She handed him a shard of crystal memory. "Remember the you that remembers."