Aurelion did not release them.
It repositioned them.
Anna felt the shift the moment the corridor dissolved—space compressing, reality folding inward like a thought being reconsidered. When the world resolved again, they stood on a platform suspended high above the city’s inner strata.
Not the Tower.
Above it.
She sucked in a breath.
Below them, Aurelion unfolded in impossible detail: layers upon layers of luminous architecture, data-streams threading through living structures, districts arranged not by geography but by function and probability. The city glowed with intent—every light a decision, every pulse a calculation.
“This is new,” Lexus said quietly.
Anna didn’t look away. “You said that last time.”
“Yes,” he replied. “And it was true then too.”
The platform beneath their f
