The oneness held for two more weeks.
Marcus stood at the threshold of the clock tower, watching the threads of connection pulse with steady golden light. The fragments were healed. The oneness was whole. The Foundation was complete. Everything was as it should be.
But Marcus couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing.
It was a subtle sensation—a hollow space in the connection, a place where the light didn't quite reach. He had felt it before, in the days after the Severance was healed, but now it was different. More distinct. More urgent.
Anna noticed it too. She arrived at the clock tower one morning, her face pale, her eyes hollow.
"There's a void in the oneness," she said. "A place where the connection is thin."
Marcus nodded slowly. "I know. I've been feeling it too."
