LYRA
Darkness is not empty.
I realize that slowly.
At first, it feels like falling. Endless. Weightless. My body is gone, my senses stripped away, and all that exists is a quiet void pressing in from every direction.
Then something changes.
The darkness begins to soften.
Not disappear, not break, but shift into something… calmer.
Warmer.
I try to move, but I cannot feel my limbs. I try to open my eyes, but I am not sure I even have eyes here. It is like existing without a body, without pain, without anything solid to hold on to.
Except—
A faint glow.
It appears in the distance, soft and silver, like moonlight bleeding through fog.
And instinctively, I move toward it.
Or maybe it pulls me.
I cannot tell.
The closer I get, the more the darkness retreats, until I am no longer s
