The roaring cheers of the crowd were still echoing in their ears when the world dissolved into pure, white light. There was no sound, no feeling of movement, just a sudden, overwhelming brightness that swallowed everything.
For a split second, Ryan felt like he was being gently pulled apart, like a thread being unraveled, and then just as gently woven back together.
When his vision returned, he was no longer in the grand, noisy arena of the Crucible. He was somewhere else entirely.
He stood with Scarlett, Emma, and Zara in a place that made no sense. It was a room with no walls, no ceiling, and no floor. Everything was an endless, soft white, like standing inside a cloud that went on forever.
The ground beneath their feet felt solid, but it looked like mist. The air didn't feel like air; it had no temperature and no smell. It was perfectly, impossibly still.
