Chapter Title: The Thing That Answered Back
The pillar did not move.
It did not glow.
It did not react.
It simply… existed.
But everything around it had changed.
Azrael could feel it immediately.
The air was heavier.
Not with pressure.
With meaning.
The space that had once felt like it was observing him now felt… aware of him in a different way.
Not distant.
Not passive.
Active.
Engaged.
“…Yeah,” he muttered under his breath.
“That definitely did something.”
He pushed himself up slowly from one knee, his body protesting with a dull, lingering ache that reminded him he was still far from recovered. His hand tingled faintly from where it had touched the pillar, not painfully, but with a strange, persistent sensation.
Like something had been left behind.
Or taken.
The woma
