"Am I... alive?"
"Where am I?"
"It's pitch black here."
No matter how many times Alistair called out, the silence remained unbroken.
"Am I dying?" The thought coiled in his mind, relentless.
"Alis... Alis..."
"Who's calling me?" A voice whispered through the darkness. "Grimble? That you?"
No reply came—only that same haunting whisper repeating his name.
"Who are you?" Alistair demanded, stumbling toward the sound. The voice grew clearer yet refused to answer.
Just as he reached where it should be—silence. The voice had vanished.
"Wait—where'd it go?" As he puzzled over this, flecks of light flickered in the void. His eyes adjusted as the darkness dissolved into a sea of silver stars—some blazing bright, others faint as dying embers.
"What...?" Then he saw it. The stars weren't s
