Ten years had passed since the Reality Firewall's establishment, yet Reed's consciousness remained a patchwork of healed fractures and persistent gaps. The Sanctuary of Broken Heroes had become more than his refuge—it had become his prison, though one of his own making. Here, in the gentle embrace of therapeutic reality, his damaged awareness could function without threatening the universe at large. But function was not the same as healing, and Reed had begun to understand that some wounds were meant to remain open.
The morning found him in his usual place—the Memorial Garden where crystalline flowers bloomed in patterns that matched the neural pathways of the departed. Each bloom was a memory preserved in physical form, and Reed found himself drawn again and again to one particular cluster that pulsed with familiar golden light.
