The silence that followed the impact was unnatural. It wasn't the silence of soundlessness, but rather that moment when everything seems suspended, as if the world itself hesitated before deciding which direction to take. The dust still fell slowly, filling the air with fine particles that reflected the little light escaping through the cracks in the labyrinth, while the three remained there, separated by only a few meters, but connected by something much denser than simple proximity.
Alice was the first to fully stabilize her posture, her feet firmly on the destroyed ground, her body erect, her eyes moving between the two men in front of her with a calmness bordering on disinterest, but which, in reality, concealed constant calculation. Every breath, every micro-movement, every variation in their energy was being recorded, analyzed, cataloged. She wasn't just observing. She was learning.
