_The void did not last. Reality snapped back with the jarring violence of a bone being reset, and Cattleya found herself not in the cathedral, nor in a digital abyss, but in the damp, claustrophobic alleyway of the Outer District. The air, was thick with the smell of wet pavement, charcoal smoke, and something else”something raw, metallic, and utterly mundane.
She pressed her back against the cold brick, her breathing ragged. The violet glow in her veins had dimmed to a faint, stuttering pulse. She looked down at her hands; they were human again”flesh, bone, and bruised skin. The silver filaments were gone, retracted so deep they felt like phantom limbs.
She heard a sound that didn't belong in the silence of the deleted city: a wet, rhythmic tearing.
Cattleya peered around the corner of
