Location: Underground Cavern, Deep Zone — Secret Realm
Date/Time: Outside time
Realm: Lower Realm — Obsidian Academy Territory
Jayde walked.
There was nothing else to do. The tunnel stretched ahead, carved from stone so dark it swallowed the light from her hands, and behind her, the crack where she'd left Takara was already gone — sealed or too far away to matter. The bond to Reiko was a hollow ache in her chest, turned inward, unreachable. The thread to Isha was static. Even the Pavilion, that constant hum at the edge of her awareness like a second heartbeat, had gone quiet.
No bond. No backup. No extraction route. No communication.
(I'm alone.)
Yes.
The word sat between her voices without argument. No tactical reframe. No emotional deflection. Just the fact of it, clean and cold as the stone under her boots.
