The new thread did not tremble like the damaged ones had.
It stretched outward in a clean arc, steady and bright, humming with quiet strength. Sarya stood on the light plane and let the filament in her chest settle before she stepped forward again.
Behind her, Earth glowed like a steady lantern in the dark. The halo wrapped around it in calm layers now, no longer flickering from siege or collapse. She felt Daniel and Mara faintly through the anchor—grounded, alert, waiting.
Ahead, the thread widened into something she had never seen before.
It was not a battlefield.
It was not a corridor under pressure.
It was a bridge.
As she walked, the space around her reshaped into a broad path made of woven lattice strands. They curved gently upward, meeting at a distant structure that shimmered like a crown suspended in space.
