The cave greeted them like an old memory.
Smooth stone walls curved inward, veins of faintly glowing crystal threading through the rock just as before. The air hummed — not loudly, but insistently — vibrating against Lira's bones in a way that made her breath slow and deepen without conscious effort.
They had been here before.
The portal waited at the heart of the cavern, suspended in nothing, something and nothing at once. Not a door, not a circle — a fold. Space bent inward, light collapsing softly toward a center that refused to be seen directly.
Renkai took her hand.
Rose lingered a step behind, eyes wide, reverent and afraid all at once. "I won't follow," she said quickly. "I'll wait here. I promise."
Lira nodded. She believed her.
Together, Lira and Renkai stepped forward.
The world folded.
