Kaelen woke in the white space.
He was not surprised this time.
The endless, featureless expanse stretched in every direction, neither bright nor dim, simply 'there'...a place without edges, without time, without the weight of the waking world. He had been here before. He knew the rules, or at least the absence of them. There was no ground beneath his feet, yet he stood. No air, yet he breathed. No sound, yet the silence pressed against his ears like a living thing.
He did not call out. He did not demand answers.
Instead, he turned slowly and looked at the beast.
