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36

The passage opened with a hush, as if the Archive itself were holding its breath.

Thane stepped into the corridor and the air shifted, no longer heavy with heat or static, but cool, reverent. The walls here were pale stone, veined with light. Glyphs hovered in suspension, unformed, waiting. It was the first space in the Hollow Star that felt unfinished; not broken, not sealed, but expectant.

Solenne walked beside him, her form now stable, luminous. She no longer flickered. She no longer whispered. She was present.

“This is the Corridor of Naming,” she said. “It is not a place of memory. It is a place of becoming.”

Thane paused. “Becoming what?”

“Whatever the Archive needs next.”

The corridor widened into a circular chamber. At its centre stood a table carved from translucent crystal, its surface etched with concentric rings. Around it, six empty pedestals waited, each bearing a single unlit glyph.