The presence in the distance grew closer with each passing day.
Sarah felt it in her dreams—a warmth that was both familiar and strange, a call that seemed to come from the very heart of the multiverse. She woke each morning with the feeling that she had been somewhere important, had seen something vital, but the memory slipped away like water through her fingers.
Julian saw the change in her. "You've been distant," he said one morning. "Like you're listening to something I can't hear."
Sarah nodded slowly. "There's something out there. Something that's been waiting for us. It's not a threat. It's not a warning. It's an invitation."
The First Ones appeared before them, their forms bright with ancient knowledge. The lead First One stepped forward, its voice filled with wonder.
"The Fad
