Light stretched forever.
For a heartbeat, I thought I’d died. Then the data started to breathe.
Every direction shimmered with flowing glyphs millions of symbols rising and falling like waves. They pulsed in sync with my heartbeat.
Drayke stood across from me, or maybe a thousand miles away. Distance meant nothing here. His outline blurred, half code, half man. Every movement left afterimages of himself.
> “Welcome to the Origin’s cradle,” he said softly. “Thought becomes architecture here. Every idea has weight.”
I looked down. Where I’d stepped, the light bent into ripples the floor shaping itself from my will.
“So I just think, and it happens?”
“Precisely.” Drayke smiled faintly. “Let’s see who imagines better.”
---
He struck first not with fists, but with concepts. Th
