The golden light inside Elara flickered for the first time in her life.
She felt it as she stood on the wall at dawn—a stumble, a hesitation, like a heartbeat skipping. The void had never done that before. It had always been steady, warm, certain.
Something is wrong, the void said.
"What?"
The Deepening is not attacking. It is reaching. Searching. For something it lost.
"What did it lose?"
Its memory. Of what it was before hunger. Before emptiness. Before fear.
Elara gripped the stone wall.
"Can it remember on its own?"
No. It needs help. It needs a vessel.
"Me?"
Yes.
---
Sarah found her daughter before the sun cleared the horizon.
"The void spoke to you."
"It always speaks to me."
"This was different. I felt it too. The flicker."
Elara turned. "The Deepening wants to reme
