Aiden did not open his eyes, but everything still opened around him.
The word "OPEN" was no longer a command. It was a fracture inside his awareness, spreading through layers he didn’t know he had. He felt Adrian move first, not physically, but like a decision shifting too late. Seraphina’s presence did not follow space rules anymore; it pressed against meaning itself.
"You are doing it," Adrian said.
Aiden’s mouth went dry. “I didn’t choose anything.”
"That is the problem," the reflection answered.
Its voice came from inside his breathing.
You were never asked.
Aiden tried to step back, but there was no room to step back. Only continuation. The system wasn’t around him anymore. It was aligned with him, like he had been placed at the center of something that finally stopped pretendi
