The Shard of the Deep Ink was not a planet; it was a cosmic well.
As The Echo of Wood approached, the crew saw a massive, swirling nebula of pigment that looked like a painter’s palette spilled across the stars. Rivers of cerulean, veins of crimson, and clouds of ochre spiraled around a central gravity well. This was the source of all vibrancy in the Multiverse—the place where the Primal Current was distilled into the colors that gave form to the Indigo Shards, the Gear-Flowers, and the eyes of every living being.
But as they drew closer, Han noticed something wrong. The nebula wasn't flowing freely. It was being channeled into massive, transparent pipelines that resembled the veins of a titan.
"The flow is being restricted," Vahn reported, his sensors pulsing with a confused, gray ligh
