Black stone. Endless chains. A body on its knees beneath a pale shaft of light.
His face did not change.
Cedric went on, unaware of how close his words had drifted to something Neo had seen himself. "I believe that before the Great Change, even then, there was something maintaining the balance of the world. Perhaps not one god in the simple religious sense. Perhaps not even one being. But something greater than human systems. A structure. An order. A force or collection of forces that kept the world from breaking apart. Then, four hundred years ago, that balance failed all at once."
