The silence was the first thing that hurt.
In the simulation, silence was never truly empty; it was a hum of background processes, a faint "white noise" of the server fans that you only noticed when it stopped. But here, in the ruins above the Root, the silence was heavy. it was filled with the sound of wind brushing against dead concrete and the wet, rhythmic thumping of my own heart.
I stayed on the grass for what felt like hours, my fingers digging into the soil. It was damp and cold, and under my fingernails, it felt like a thousand tiny needles.
"Leo? You're staring at the dirt again."
I looked up. Nix was standing over me, silhouetted against a sunset that looked nothing like the ones in New Aethelgard. The sky wasn't a perfect, rendered gradient of orange and purple. It was mess
