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LiamThe moment our merged consciousness touches the edge of physical reality, I feel the jolt of returning to my body like lightning through my nervous system. Not painful exactly, but overwhelming—suddenly having weight, substance, a heartbeat, and breathing to manage after existing as pure awareness in the between-space."Now!" Celina shouts from somewhere beyond my immediate perception. "Pull them through! The projection is destabilizing!"I feel hands on my physical form—pack members securing my body as consciousness floods back into flesh that's been maintained by ritual energy for hours. Beside me, Dane gasps audibly as he makes the same transition, our shared merger experience leaving us momentarily disoriented about individual boundaries.And Finley—"There!" someone calls out, relief evident in their voice. "She's materializing!"I force my eyes open despite the disorientation, needing to see her actual physical form rather than just sensing her through our residual merger c
Dane Present "The echoes taught me how others failed," Finley explains, her voice carrying new authority born from hard-won experience. "They tried to force escape through individual effort. But this place... it responds to connection, to unified purpose. We can't just leave—we have to transform it.""Transform it how?" I ask, my tactical mind immediately focusing on practical implementation."Consciousness merger," she replies, and the words send a chill through me that has nothing to do with dimensional displacement. "Temporary fusion of our awareness while the space collapses around us. Dangerous, but possible if our bond is strong enough."The concept should terrify me—losing individual identity, even briefly, goes against every instinct Summit possesses. Yet as I study Finley's determined expression, as I feel Liam's ready acceptance through our connection, fear transforms into anticipation."What are the risks?" I ask, needing tactical assessment before committing to something
DaneEarlierThe moment our consciousness touches the between-space, I understand why the historical accounts described anchor volunteers as "forever changed." This isn't just dimensional displacement—it's existence stripped down to pure awareness, reality operating by rules that make my enforcer mind recoil in fundamental rejection."Stay connected," I warn Liam through our shared projection, feeling his similar disorientation as we navigate space that defies every law of physics. "Don't try to understand it. Just follow the pathway Finley's creating.""Trying," he responds, his mental voice strained with effort. "But this place—it's like trying to walk through someone else's dream. Nothing stays consistent long enough to get oriented."He's right. Walls shift when we're not looking directly at them, distances compress or expand based on emotional state rather than physical measurement, and the very air seems to pulse with alien energy that makes Summit restless beneath my projected
Finley I focus on the triad bond, feeling for Dane and Liam's presence through whatever separates our realities. They're there, definitely there, their consciousness maintaining the connection despite the strain of projection across dimensional barriers. Through our bond, I sense their absolute faith in my ability to create the pathway we need, their complete trust in whatever choice I make.That trust, that certainty, gives me the confidence to begin reshaping the between-space deliberately. Not forcing change, but guiding it—encouraging the walls to thin where I need passage, strengthening the foundations where I need stability."I need a route," I tell the space around me, addressing it like a living entity rather than an empty dimension. "Not escape from you, but passage through you. A bridge between realities that honors what you are while allowing what I need to be."The response is immediate and startling—cooperation rather than resistance, as if the between-space has been wai
FinleyThe between-space shifts around me as Dane and Liam's consciousness begins to fade back toward their physical forms, preparing for the final phase of our escape attempt. Being alone here again, even temporarily, sends a chill through me that has nothing to do with temperature. The silence feels deeper, more oppressive, now that I've experienced connection across the dimensional barrier.Nova whines deep in my consciousness, her wolf mind struggling with the isolation that follows their departure. She's been my constant companion through this ordeal, the one piece of myself that remained fully intact despite the alien wrongness of this place. Her presence has been an anchor to my own identity when everything else threatened to dissolve into the fluid madness of between-space reality.“Pack,” she insists through our internal connection, her simple wolf logic cutting through the complexity of our situation. “Mates came. Mates return. Pack stays together.”Her certainty strengthens
Liam "What happens if we try this and it fails?" Finley asks, voicing the concern we're all feeling. "If the consciousness merger doesn't work, or the space collapses before we can follow the pathway back?"Then you join us, the echoes answer with simple honesty. Awareness without form, connection without substance. Not death, but not life as you understand it.The silence that follows is heavy with the weight of that possibility. Through our connection, I feel the fear beneath Finley's brave exterior—not of dying exactly, but of existing forever in this nowhere place, conscious but unable to touch the world we love, watching reality from the outside without ever being able to participate again."There's something else," Dane says quietly, his enforcer training making him voice the tactical concerns we're all thinking. "Our physical forms in the ritual chamber. If our consciousness doesn't return, if we get trapped here permanently...""Our bodies will eventually die," I finish griml