While Razeal remained sealed within the sphere of shadow, locked away from the outside world for reasons no one truly understood, time outside continued to move in its slow, uncomfortable way. Days passed first, then weeks, until even the rhythm of waiting began to feel heavy. The dark dome still floated in the middle of the water exactly as it had on the first day unmoving, silent, swallowing light itself. Nothing entered. Nothing left. It simply existed there, like a wound that refused to close.
More then a month had passed.
The air around it carried a strange stillness now. Even the water beneath seemed reluctant to ripple too close, as though instinctively avoiding whatever rested inside.
