Elara woke to the void screaming.
Not aloud—inside her skull, inside her bones, inside the golden light that had lived in her blood since she was seventeen. The Deepening was not attacking. It was speaking.
You are the last, it whispered. The final vessel. When you fall, the void falls with you.
"I won't fall."
Everyone falls. Everyone breaks. Everyone becomes empty.
"I'm not everyone."
The silver light faded.
Elara sat up in bed, gasping.
---
Sarah reached her daughter's room in seconds.
"The Deepening?"
"It spoke to me. Said I was the last. When I fall, the void falls."
"The void has been wrong before."
"It wasn't wrong. I could feel it. The emptiness."
Sarah sat on the bed.
"The Deepening lies."
"It doesn't lie. It doesn't need to. Emptiness is honest."
"When did you ge
