The presence in the distance resolved into something Julian had never felt before.
It was not a threat. It was not a promise. It was a sorrow so deep and ancient that it seemed to have existed since the beginning of time. It was the sound of weeping that had never stopped, the echo of a grief that had never healed.
Sarah felt it too. She stood beside him at the window of their home, her eyes fixed on the horizon, her voice barely a whisper. "Someone is crying. Someone has been crying for a very long time."
Julian nodded. "I feel it too. It's like the multiverse itself is grieving. Like something was lost that can never be found."
The First Ones appeared before them, their forms dim, their light flickering with ancient sorrow. The lead First One stepped forward, its voice heavy with the
