The journey to the Shard of the Prologue was not a leap across the stars, but a journey through the silence. As The Echo of Wood approached the coordinates, the vibrant hum of the Recursive Joy engine softened into a whisper. The multi-colored trails of the Deep Ink faded, leaving behind a space that was white, vast, and terrifyingly empty.
This was the "Paper" before the "Pen."
"There’s no background radiation here," Vahn whispered, his light narrowed to a tiny, concentrated pinprick. "No history. No echoes. It’s as if we’re traveling through a thought that hasn't been finished yet."
Han stood at the prow, the 148th Variable—The Proxy’s Humanity—acting as a lens through which he saw the void. In this emptiness, he didn't see a lack of life; he saw the tension of a beginning.
Then, it
