The horror was no longer slow.
It crashed through Jack's awareness with force that made his constitution struggle to maintain steady breathing, certainty overriding conscious acceptance to confirm what every anomaly had been indicating since he'd first arrived in these impossible gardens.
This wasn't home.
This wasn't his family.
This wasn't real.
And the dungeon was reacting to his doubt.
The golden eyes watching him simultaneously bled to black.
Transformation from the distinctive Kaiser gold to absolute darkness that consumed irises and pupils in corruption that spread across their features like ink dropped into water.
The change was perfectly synchronized, all pairs of eyes corrupting in the same moment, as if controlled by a single consciousness.
"Jack?" Octavia's voice maintained its warm concern, even as her eyes showed nothing but emptiness. "What's wrong?"
