The Resonance Hall looked different than yesterday. The crystalline platforms hovering above the floor now formed a complex geometric figure—something between a star and a spiral. Thin threads of light flickered in the air, connecting the platforms to each other, like a map of constellations or neural connections. The air itself seemed denser, saturated with energy that felt like a slight tingling on the skin.

  Tella was waiting in the center of the hall, her silver form had acquired a special clarity today—each line, each curve was defined with almost sculptural precision. She no longer looked like a creature of liquid metal; rather like a perfect statue created by the greatest master and somehow miraculously brought to life.

  "You came alone," she noted when Liara entered the hall.

  It wasn't a question, but Liara answered anyway:

  "Daren decided to visit the Archives. Said he wanted to learn more about the Seven Ancients and the history of the shards."

  Tella nodded, and understanding flashed in her silver eyes.

  "He's looking for confirmation of his concerns," she said. "Or, possibly, their refutation. It's natural. For five centuries he has followed a certain path, a certain idea of what healing means for the shards. Now, when an alternative opens before him, he needs time to process it."

  Liara came closer, feeling how the energy fields of the hall reacted to her presence—a slight fluctuation in the structure of force lines, like water into which a stone was thrown.

  "I worry about him," she said quietly. "He has always been my anchor, my guide. Now, when everything is changing so quickly... I fear he might feel unnecessary."

  Tella made a gesture with her hand, and one of the crystal platforms descended lower, inviting Liara to sit.

  "The connection between you is deep," she said when Liara settled on the platform. "He sacrificed centuries of his life to find you. Such devotion... is rare even among immortals."

  In her voice, Liara caught a note of something resembling sadness or, perhaps, longing.

  "You speak as if you understand this from your own experience," she noted.

  Tella smiled—an expression that on her metallic face looked both alien and surprisingly natural.

  "The shard of Chronos, which I serve as a vessel for, remembers much," she replied. "Including the nature of connections that survive millennia."

  She paused, her silver eyes momentarily dimmed, as if clouded by memories.

  "But we're not here to discuss the past, but to work with the present." Her voice returned to its usual melodiousness. "Yesterday you established contact with the shard in Verdantis. Today we'll go further—try not just to communicate, but to exchange energy, knowledge, even... protect each other from a distance."

  Liara felt a surge of excitement and slight fear.

  "That sounds... complicated."

  "It's deeper than complicated," Tella nodded. "It requires not only technical skills but also a certain state of mind. A willingness for genuine vulnerability and openness. You must be ready to allow other shards to see you as you are at the deepest level."

  She rose to a neighboring platform, which automatically raised itself, creating balance with Liara's platform. Now they sat facing each other, separated only by thin streams of light circulating between them.

  "Close your eyes," Tella said softly. "And find the center of your being—that which remains unchanged even in the flow of transformations."

  Liara closed her eyes and immersed herself inside, seeking that anchor she had discovered yesterday—the spark of individuality in an ocean of multiplicity. She found it more easily this time, as if part of her already knew the way.

  "Now," Tella's voice came as if from everywhere, "feel not only your center, but also mine. We are shards of different Ancients, but united by the common fabric of reality. Find the point where our essences touch."

  Liara tried to expand her perception, to go beyond her own boundaries. At first, she felt only emptiness, then—a vague presence of something else, different from her. Gradually, this presence became more distinct, acquired form and rhythm—fluid, silvery, a little faster than her own.

  "I feel you," she whispered. "Like... a wave on a different frequency."

  "Good," Tella's answer sounded simultaneously in her ears and in her mind. "Now find the point of resonance—the place where our frequencies can synchronize, if only for a moment."

  Liara focused on the two rhythms—hers and Tella's. They were different, but not contradictory. Like two melodies that can merge into harmony if you find the right moment. She mentally "listened," waiting for this moment, like a musician waiting for their entry.

  And suddenly she felt it—a moment of perfect synchronicity, when two different waves briefly coincide, amplifying each other. At this moment, she suddenly saw—not with her eyes, but with some other sense—an image of Tella, but not her physical form. What she saw was the essence hidden beneath the silver shell—a luminous figure consisting of timelines intertwining in a complex dance. Some lines were bright and clear, others—dim and blurred, like potential possibilities rather than fixed events.

  You see me, Tella's voice sounded in her consciousness, and there was surprise in it and something akin to reverence. Few can see a shard of Chronos in its true form.

  You're beautiful, replied Liara, unsure whether she was speaking the words aloud or mentally. The creature of timelines that she saw indeed possessed a strange, unearthly beauty—like the complex pattern of a starry sky or the fractal design of frost patterns on glass.

  In response, she felt a wave of emotions from Tella—embarrassment, joy, tenderness, and something deeper that she couldn't fully define. And along with this wave came images—fragments of memories that, Liara somehow knew, belonged not to the current Tella, but to that ancient entity of which she was a shard.

  She saw two beings of light—one silvery, the other golden—circling in a cosmic dance around a newborn star. She heard music that wasn't sound in the ordinary sense, but rather a harmony of vibrations at a fundamental level of reality. She felt the joy of creation when these two beings together formed patterns of time and space, creating the foundation for worlds that were only to emerge.

  Chronos and Aeon, she understood. Before the Separation. Before the conflict. When they were... united in their diversity.

  Yes, Tella's answer was filled with quiet sadness. When balance was not a static structure, but a living dance.

  The images changed. Now Liara saw something like a council or conclave—seven beings of light, arranged in a circle. Each radiated its own color, its own frequency. They communicated not in words, but in pure concepts that flowed between them like streams of energy. But in these streams, Liara felt tension, dissonance. Disagreements that deepened, becoming increasingly irreconcilable.

  The beginning of the end, whispered Tella's voice. When the Seven Ancients began to see different paths for the multiverse.

  The next image was blinding, almost painful—a cosmic storm tearing at the fabric of reality. Seven beings, torn apart, their light scattered into countless fragments that flew in all directions, like sparks from a supernova explosion.

  The Great Separation, Liara understood, feeling the echo of ancient pain that still resonated through eons of time.

  The vision ended as abruptly as it had begun, and Liara found herself back in the Resonance Hall, sitting on a crystal platform. Her face was wet with tears she didn't remember shedding.

  Opposite her, Tella was looking at her with wide-open silver eyes, which reflected the same shock that Liara herself was experiencing.

  "That was..." Tella fell silent, as if not finding words in any of the languages she knew.

  "I saw them," Liara said quietly. "Chronos and Aeon. Before the Separation. And... the Council of Seven. The beginning of the conflict."

  Tella slowly nodded.

  "I did not expect the connection to be so deep on the first attempt," she said, and there was something like reverent awe in her voice. "It usually takes years of practice to achieve such a level of resonance between shards of different Ancients."

  Liara raised her hand to her face, wiping away tears that continued to flow, like an echo of the ancient trauma she had just experienced through Tella's memories.

  "What I saw... did it really happen? Or is it a metaphor, a way for my consciousness to interpret what has no human analogues?"

  "Both," answered Tella, her voice becoming softer. "The true nature of the Ancients and their interactions lies beyond human understanding. Your consciousness created images that you could perceive, but the essence of what you saw... is real."

  She paused, then added, as if confessing:

  "I did not show you these memories intentionally. They just... arose at the moment of resonance. As if our shards recognized each other and began exchanging memory without our conscious participation."

  Liara nodded, feeling something change inside her. As if a part of her that had been sleeping or forgotten was beginning to awaken. Not completely, not clearly—like a person slowly emerging from a deep sleep, not yet fully aware of where they are.

  "So this is what you meant by the exchange of energy and knowledge between shards," she said. "Not just communication, but... a merger at a deeper level."

  "Yes," nodded Tella. "Although what happened between us was especially intense because of our... previous connection."

  She lowered her eyes, and on her silver face flashed an expression that might be called embarrassment, if it didn't seem too human for a being of her nature.

  "That's why the Archivist suggested I be your teacher," she continued. "He knew that there exists this resonance between us, which would facilitate the learning process."

  Liara remembered the old Guardian's words about the closeness of Aeon and Chronos before the Separation. About connections that don't disappear even after eons of separation. She felt the truth of these words now more strongly than when they were spoken by the Archivist.

  "You said that today we would learn not only to communicate but also to protect each other," she said, returning to the practical side of their lesson. "How does that happen?"

  Tella seemed glad to return to a more structured topic.

  "Shards can share energy through established connections," she explained. "This can be simple support, like charging a depleted battery. Or more complex protection—creating an energy shield around another shard to protect it from hostile influences."

  She made a gesture with her hand, and a projection appeared in the air between them—two glowing points connected by a thin line.

  "In its simplest form, it looks like this—a constant flow of energy flowing from one shard to another. But in a more advanced form..." The projection changed, now the line between the points turned into a complex network of multiple threads, creating something like a cocoon around one of the points. "...it can be an entire protection system, capable of withstanding even strong attacks."

  Liara carefully studied the projection, trying to understand the principles of its operation.

  "And you can teach me this?"

  "We've already begun," Tella smiled. "The resonance we've established is the first step. Now we need to learn to control the energy flows we exchange."

  She extended her hand, and in her palm appeared a small silvery ball, pulsating like a living heart.

  "This is part of my energy," she said. "I want you to accept it, and then return it to me in a changed form—passing it through your essence, giving it your shade."

  Liara hesitantly extended her hand, and the ball slowly floated to her, hovering above her palm. She felt it not through physical touch, but as a presence—warm, alive, pulsating in a rhythm that differed from her own, but in a strange way complemented it.

  "What should I do?" she asked.

  "Let it enter you," Tella replied. "Don't resist, but don't dissolve in it either. Find a balance between acceptance and preserving your essence."

  Liara focused on the silvery ball, mentally opening herself to it, inviting it in, but maintaining her sense of center, her individuality. The ball began to slowly descend, seeping through her skin without physically breaking its integrity. She felt its passage as a cool wave spreading from her palm throughout her body.

  When the ball had fully entered her, she felt a strange change in perception—as if part of Tella's consciousness now lived inside her. She saw the world not only through her own eyes but through a strange prism, where time became something almost tangible, where each moment was not a point but a line stretching into the past and future.

  "This is... amazing," she exhaled. "I see... differently."

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  "You perceive time as a shard of Chronos sees it," explained Tella. "Not as a sequence of moments, but as a whole, where past, present, and future coexist."

  Liara looked around in amazement. The Resonance Hall now appeared as a complex temporal construction—she saw not only its present state but also faint imprints of the past, and even hints of potential future configurations.

  "Now," said Tella, "try to change the energy I've given you. Give it your signature, your quality, and return it to me."

  Liara concentrated on the energy circulating inside her. She felt it as something separate from herself, but not alien—like a guest in her home. She mentally surrounded this energy with her own, allowing them to mix but not completely merge. Like two different colors of paint that create a new shade without completely losing their original nature.

  When she felt the process was complete, she mentally directed this transformed energy back to Tella, imagining how it left her body and flowed across an invisible bridge connecting their essences.

  A new ball appeared above Tella's palm—but now not purely silvery, but with golden streaks, like marble of two precious metals. The ball pulsated in a new rhythm, which was neither Liara's rhythm nor Tella's, but something new that emerged from their interaction.

  "This is..." Tella looked at the ball with an expression of deep surprise. "I didn't expect this level of transformation. This usually requires weeks or months of practice."

  She extended her second hand, and the ball began to transform, turning into something like a small bird of glowing silver with golden wings. The bird fluttered in her palms like a living creature, ready to take flight.

  "You created not just transformed energy," Tella said with reverence. "You created an energy construct with its own... almost consciousness. This is..."

  She didn't finish the phrase, but Liara felt the continuation through their established connection—a mixture of amazement, pride, and slight concern. Concern because what Liara had done went beyond the ordinary abilities of shards. This was something new, unforeseen.

  The bird suddenly flew up from Tella's palms and began circling around the Resonance Hall, leaving a trail of silver-golden light behind it. It flew in a spiral, from the edge of the hall to its center, and with each turn became larger, more distinct, until it transformed into a creature the size of a real eagle, shining so brightly that it was difficult to look at directly.

  "We must control it," said Tella, and in her voice Liara heard a note of alarm. "Energy constructs of such complexity can become unstable."

  But Liara did not feel threatened by the creature they had created. On the contrary, she felt a deep connection with it, as if it were an extension of herself.

  "I don't think she's dangerous," she said, rising from her platform. "She's just... exploring herself. Like all of us."

  She extended her hand, and the bird, as if sensing the call, flew toward her. But instead of landing on her hand, it began circling around Liara, creating a spiral of light that gradually narrowed, approaching her body.

  And then something unexpected happened—the bird didn't just touch Liara, it began to enter her, seep through her skin, just as the silvery ball had earlier. But unlike the ball, which felt like a guest, the bird felt like the return of a part of Liara herself—a part that had been separated, transformed, enriched by experience, and was now reuniting with the whole.

  When the last sparks of light disappeared inside her, Liara felt a strange change. Her perception of time, which had changed after accepting Tella's energy, now became even more complex. She still saw time as a whole, but now also felt her ability to influence it—not to change the past or future, but to create islands of stability in the flow, points of equilibrium where time could flow harmoniously, without ruptures and distortions.

  "What happened?" she asked, looking at her hands, which now glowed slightly brighter, with fine silvery streaks running under the pearlescent skin.

  Tella looked at her with an expression in which amazement mixed with what might be called reverent fear, if it didn't seem too human for a being of her nature.

  "You absorbed our joint energy construct," she said. "This is... unusual. Usually such constructs exist separately from their creators, as autonomous entities."

  She paused, as if choosing her words.

  "I think you just demonstrated exactly what the Archivist was talking about—the ability for partial merger without loss of individuality. You accepted part of my essence, transformed it, united it with yours, but didn't dissolve in it and didn't completely absorb it. You... integrated it."

  Liara tried to comprehend what had happened. What she felt wasn't a loss of self or the capture of another's. It was rather an enrichment, an expansion—as if she had learned a new language or mastered a new art. She remained herself but became more than she was before.

  "I feel... a change in my perception of time," she said. "As if I can now not only see it differently, but also... interact with it."

  Tella nodded, her silver eyes carefully studying Liara.

  "That makes sense. You integrated part of the shard of Chronos, the guardian of time. This gave you a new level of understanding of its nature."

  "But this doesn't mean I've become Chronos or taken part of your essence?" asked Liara, suddenly concerned about the possibility that she had somehow harmed her mentor.

  Tella smiled and shook her head.

  "No. What you absorbed was already transformed, had become something new. It was neither purely mine nor purely yours—it was the fruit of our interaction, a new entity born from the resonance of our shards."

  She paused, then added:

  "This might be the key to what we call the Third Path. Not complete merger, which erases individuality, and not complete separation, which denies connections, but... creative interaction, creating something new that enriches all participants without destroying their uniqueness."

  This concept resonated with something deep inside Liara. She remembered her experience in Veyrin, where she partially united with the ghostly priestess and the energy cluster, while maintaining her central "self." And her connection with the silvery tree in Verdantis, where she established contact but did not absorb it.

  "That's... a beautiful idea," she said quietly. "Development through connection, not through absorption or isolation."

  "Exactly," Tella nodded. "And what you just demonstrated might be the first step toward the practical realization of this idea."

  She stood up from her platform and made a gesture, inviting Liara to follow her.

  "Come. There are some beings you should meet. Other entities that have found their own versions of the Third Path. Perhaps their experience will help you better understand your own."

  They left the Resonance Hall and headed through the winding corridors of the Primordial Garden, which seemed to change, reacting to their passage. Liara noticed that she now saw these changes differently—not just as a transformation of space, but as a complex dance of times and probabilities, where each change was not random but part of a deeper pattern.

  "Where are we going?" she asked as they passed several halls, each stranger and more amazing than the previous one.

  "To the Garden of Fragments," replied Tella. "A place inhabited by beings with split essences who have found a way to live with this state, not seeking complete reunion, but also not denying their multiplicity."

  They emerged onto a wide terrace, opening a view of an incredible landscape—something between a botanical garden, a sculptural composition, and a living organism. Plants, if they could be called that, moved with almost animal flexibility. Some looked like trees made of crystal or metal, others resembled flowers made of light or colored mist. Between them moved beings of diverse forms—from almost human to absolutely alien to human perception.

  "What is this place?" whispered Liara, enchanted by the spectacle.

  "A refuge for those who don't fit into the ordinary categories of existence," answered Tella. "Many of the Garden of Fragments' inhabitants are shards of various Ancients who have found a way to live with their fragmented nature, not considering it a curse requiring healing, or a natural state that must simply be accepted."

  She pointed to a group of beings gathered around a fountain, from which, instead of water, flowed something like liquid light of different shades.

  "Come. I'll introduce you to some of them."

  As they approached the fountain, Liara could better see the beings. They were diverse in their forms, but all possessed a certain quality of incompleteness or multiplicity—as if each was a collage of several different beings, assembled in an imperfect but harmonious way.

  One of the beings, noticing their approach, separated from the group and headed toward them. It looked almost like a human—tall, slender, with long silvery hair. But its skin was translucent, like crystal, through which streams of multicolored light could be seen circulating throughout the body. And the eyes... the eyes were like two small cosmos, with galaxies and stars rotating in their depths.

  "Tella," the being bowed with the grace of a dancer. "Glad to see you again." It turned its gaze to Liara, and in its starry eyes flashed something like recognition. "And you, bearer of the shard of Aeon. Your arrival in the Garden... has been discussed."

  Its voice was strange—like several voices speaking in perfect unison, creating an effect similar to choral singing.

  "Merian," Tella also bowed. "Allow me to introduce Liara. Liara, this is Merian, one of the oldest inhabitants of the Garden of Fragments."

  "Pleased to meet you," said Liara, unsure what form of greeting this strange being expected.

  Merian smiled—a smile that seemed to bloom across his crystalline body, making the light inside him pulse brighter.

  "Likewise, Liara. We have been observing your... unusual path with great interest."

  "We?" Liara questioned, noticing the plurality in his address.

  "Yes, we," nodded Merian. "I am a collective of seven shards, belonging to three different Ancients. Three from Nexus, the connector. Two from Anima, the life-giver. And two from Logos, the knower."

  He made a gesture with his hand, and the light inside his body divided into seven different streams, each of its own color, creating something like a living diagram.

  "We exist as unity in multiplicity. Not completely merged, but not completely separated. Each with its own voice, but all together forming a choir."

  Liara looked at him in amazement. The idea of a being composed of shards from different Ancients was... revolutionary. This went beyond the ordinary understanding of how shards could interact with each other.

  "How is this possible?" she asked. "I thought that shards of one Ancient might seek reunion, but shards of different..."

  "Usually they are incompatible," nodded Merian. "Or, more precisely, their interaction usually takes the form of symbiosis, not integration. But we... experimented. Explored the boundaries of the possible. And found a way to exist as a single being, while preserving the uniqueness of each component."

  He paused, his starry eyes studying Liara with deep interest.

  "That is why your path is so interesting to us. You too are exploring new forms of interaction between shards—so far only with your own, but the principle is similar."

  Another being approached them—as different from Merian as possible. It was small, not higher than a meter, with a body that seemed to consist of thousands of tiny tinkling crystals, constantly rearranging themselves, forming different configurations. It had no face in the conventional sense, but Liara somehow felt that it was observing her.

  "This is Zil," introduced Tella. "One of our most... unusual inhabitants."

  The crystalline being emitted a series of tinkling sounds, which somehow transformed into comprehensible speech:

  "Greetings, Golden One. We heard about your dance with the Silver One. Beautiful melody. New. Unusual."

  Liara blinked, somewhat confused by the strange speech of the being and the fact that it obviously knew about her training with Tella.

  "Zil perceives the world through sounds and vibrations," explained Tella. "For him, energy interactions are music, and beings are instruments on which this music is played."

  "I don't quite understand," admitted Liara.

  Zil tinkled again, his crystals rearranging into new configurations:

  "You—a harp. Multi-stringed. Each string—part of you-not-you. When strings sound separately—melody simple. When together—complex, rich. When with other instruments—symphony."

  The metaphor was strange, but it had its own logic. Liara remembered how Tella talked about resonance between shards, about the harmony that can arise from their interaction.

  "And what did you... hear in our interaction with Tella?"

  Zil's crystals vibrated, creating a melody that sounded both familiar and absolutely alien—like music from a dream you begin to forget upon waking.

  "New song. Not yours. Not hers. Yours together. Third melody, born from two."

  Merian nodded, his starry eyes twinkling.

  "This is exactly the Third Path that the Keepers of Balance speak of. Not a merger that erases differences, and not a separation that denies connections, but creative interaction, creating new forms of harmony."

  They were joined by other inhabitants of the Garden of Fragments, each with their unique form and history. A being that looked like a living stained glass, composed of thousands of colored pieces, constantly rearranging, creating new patterns. A pair of beings that seemed to be made of smoke of different colors, intertwining but never fully mixing. A being resembling a miniature solar system, with a central "star" and "planets" rotating around it, each of which was a separate consciousness.

  All of them were shards of different Ancients who had found their unique ways of existing with a fragmented nature. Some had united in collectives, like Merian. Others existed in symbiosis, maintaining clear boundaries between themselves but forming more complex structures. Still others had found ways to cyclically change the dominant personality, allowing each shard to take turns "managing" the common body.

  Liara listened to their stories with growing amazement and understanding. The diversity of forms that interaction between shards could take was... inspiring. She was beginning to see that the Third Path was not one road, but rather a spectrum of possibilities, each representing a unique balance between unity and multiplicity.

  "How long has this Garden existed?" she asked Tella when they stepped a bit aside to catch their breath after the intense communication.

  "Since the founding of the Keepers of Balance," replied Tella. "Thousands of years by the measures of most worlds. The first inhabitants were shards who, like you, intuitively sought an alternative to complete merger or complete separation. Over time, the Garden became a refuge for all who explore the Third Path."

  She paused, looking at the diverse beings communicating with each other in ways that went beyond ordinary understanding of communication.

  "Each of them has found their own way to reconcile with the multiplicity of their nature. Each represents a unique form of harmony. And each can offer you a different perspective on your own path."

  Liara nodded, feeling a strange sense of belonging. Among these bizarre beings, so different from her externally, she felt more... understood than anywhere else in all her memory. They shared her experience of fragmented existence, her search for harmony between parts of herself.

  Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a new being—a tall figure shrouded in a cloak made of material that seemed to be woven from darkness itself. The hood concealed the face, but Liara felt that the being was observing her.

  Tella tensed at the sight of the newcomer, her silver form becoming more structured, almost like armor.

  "Nexarion," she said with formal politeness, in which Liara caught a note of wariness. "I didn't expect to see you in the Garden today."

  The figure in the dark cloak inclined its head in a minimal gesture of greeting.

  "News travels fast, Tella," replied a voice, deep and resonating, as if the speaker was simultaneously very close and infinitely far away. "The arrival of the bearer of Aeon's shard, who has found a new path of reunion... such events attract attention."

  He turned to Liara, and although she could not see his face, she felt the intensity of his gaze.

  "I am Nexarion, explorer of limits. Or, as some prefer to call me, the Disputed One."

  "Disputed?" Liara repeated, intuitively feeling that behind this name lay some story.

  "My methods and goals... cause disagreements among the Keepers of Balance," answered Nexarion. "I believe that true evolution of shards is possible only through controlled risk and experiment. Others prefer a more... conservative approach."

  Tella slightly shook her head, and Liara caught a warning in this gesture.

  "Nexarion conducts experiments on merging shards of different Ancients," she explained. "Some of them... did not end well."

  "Without risk, there is no progress," countered Nexarion. "And some of my 'experiments,' as you call them, have led to significant discoveries."

  He turned to Liara again.

  "Your case is particularly interesting. You've found a way of partial reunion that preserves the individuality of each shard. This is... an elegant solution. But I wonder how far it can go. How many shards can be united in this way before individuality begins to blur? And what happens if this principle is applied to shards of different Ancients?"

  Nexarion's questions sounded academic, but Liara felt something more behind them—a deep, almost obsessive interest, bordering on... greed? Not for material values, but for knowledge, for the possibilities that might open up.

  "I myself am only beginning to understand this process," she cautiously replied. "And I'm not sure I'm ready to experiment with it so... broadly."

  Nexarion made a gesture that could be either a shrug or an expression of disappointment.

  "Of course. Caution... is understandable. But if you ever want to explore the full potential of your method, I would be happy to offer my knowledge and resources."

  Before Liara could answer, Merian quickly approached them, his crystal body pulsating more intensely than before.

  "Liara, Tella," he said, ignoring Nexarion, "the Wanderer is looking for you. He has received troubling news and is waiting for you at the Well of Reflections."

  Tella immediately tensed.

  "We must go," she said, taking Liara by the hand. "Thank you for the information, Merian."

  She nodded to the other inhabitants of the Garden, then turned to Nexarion with a more formal bow.

  "Another time, Nexarion."

  The figure in the dark cloak inclined its head.

  "Of course. Our conversation can wait. Although, I fear, time is becoming an increasingly precious resource."

  In his words, Liara heard a hint, the meaning of which she could not fully decipher. But she had no time for reflection—Tella was already leading her away from the Garden of Fragments, her movements now more abrupt, alarmed.

  "What's wrong?" asked Liara as they quickly walked through the corridors of the Primordial Garden.

  "If Daren has received some news, troubling enough to seek us out..." Tella didn't finish the phrase, but Liara understood the unspoken. Something had happened, something related to the Order of Guardians or, possibly, to other shards of Aeon.

  They quickened their pace, heading to the Well of Reflections, where Daren awaited them with news that could change all their plans. Liara felt growing concern, but also a strange determination. After everything she had learned today, after meeting the beings of the Garden of Fragments, she was beginning to better understand her nature and her potential. And whatever awaited them ahead, she knew that now she had something she didn't have before—a perspective, an alternative, a Third Path.