The Shard of the Occupant was a realm of infinite waiting. It felt like the hushed, dusty air of a library that had been closed for a thousand years, or the liminal stillness of a train station at three in the morning. Here, the ground was composed of "Draft-Tiles"—shifting squares of marble that occasionally dissolved into handwritten notes before reforming.
As Kael and Mira stepped into the Shard, they weren't met with monsters or static, but with Eyes.
Thousands of figures sat on benches, leaned against unpainted walls, or stood in long, motionless lines. They were the "Subplots"—characters whose names had been mentioned once and forgotten, protagonists whose stories were cancelled on page ten, and background extras who had developed a consciousness but no purpose.
"It’s a graveyard
