That night, Taylor dreamed of a plain beneath a black nebula, its tendrils coiling like smoke. A figure loomed in the distance, cloaked in tattered starlight, its form shifting—a swarm of galaxies, a collapse of bones. It spoke without moving:

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  You build your myths like sandcastles. Let me show you the tide.

  They woke screaming, the fractal spiral seared into the observatory’s primary lens.