The liquid pods cracked open in near-perfect synchronization, their contents spilling across the Collection room floor in torrents of glowing fluid. Alarms shrieked from every surface, their piercing wails echoing through the crystalline chambers and corridors beyond. Emergency lights bathed everything in harsh red illumination that made the chaos feel even more surreal.
Saguna rushed to Sahara's pod as the preserving liquid drained away, his heart hammering as he saw her properly for the first time in twelve years. She looked exactly as she had the day she disappeared, a seventeen-year-old girl suspended in time. But something was fundamentally wrong.
Her skin had an odd translucent quality, as if she existed only partially in the physical realm. Dark veins traced patterns beneath the surface, not unlike his own corruption marks but somehow deeper, more fundamental. When her eyes fluttered open, they were completely black for a moment before returning to the brown he remembered.
