The void's question echoed through the folds.
Not in words. In pressure waves that traveled from the ocean floor to the bridge, from the bridge to Curio, from Curio to the answer. A chain of awareness that had never existed before.
Why?
Curio pulsed.
It keeps asking. The same question. Over and over.
It is learning, the third thing said. Repetition is how young things learn.
It is not young. It is ancient.
It is young in awareness. That is what matters.
The answer stirred.
I have responded. 'Because.' It does not accept.
Then respond differently.
I do not know how.
Then learn.
---
Lyra stood at the bridge's edge.
The nameless color had deepened. Not darker. More present. The bridge was extending further now, reaching toward the ocean, toward the void.
"Third thing. Can you
