The air in the Black Notch didn’t just feel cold; it felt **empty**.
As the last echoes of the Hunters’ shriek faded into the obsidian sky, I looked down at my hands. They were no longer solid flesh and bone. They were a vibrating lattice of violet light and grey static, flickering like a dying television screen. I could see the snow through my palms. I could see the jagged rocks of the Iron Mountains through my chest.
"Elara!" Silas’s voice was a ragged plea. He lunged for me, but as his hands closed around my shoulders, they passed right through. He stumbled, falling into the snow where I should have been. "No. No, no, no. Stay with me. Don't 'Archive' yet!"
"I... I can't find the 'Floor', Silas," I whispered. My voice sounded like it was coming from a thousand miles away, or from a s
