In the quiet hours after midnight, Hajin sat cross-legged upon his bedroll inside the covered wagon.
Beside him, Vella lay fast asleep, her breathing deep and even as her exhausted spiritual channels finally found complete rest.
With a focused exhalation, he withdrew the sampled foreign frequency from his core, carrying it inward through his soul meridians.
His consciousness sank beneath the waking world, passing the six radiant physical Rings that orbited his spiritual core.
He emerged into the inner sanctuary of the divine Fragment, where the endless void transformed into a blooming memory garden.
Patches of wild, shimmering wildflowers swayed across the ethereal grass, though most of the blossoms remained gray and unopened.
Upon a newly formed bench of smooth white marble sat the celestial Goddess, her magnificent wings folded gently behind her back.
She held a half-formed gray blossom in the palm of her hand, turning the delicate petals over with a quiet, maternal sigh.
