Chapter 11 - Chapter 11: The Cosmic Hollow

The stars bled. Not light, not fire, but something else—aetheric ichor, crimson and alive, dripping through the void above a shattered platform that wasn't on Earth-Alpha or any Earth Einstein Voss knew. He floated, weightless, his toolbag tethered to his belt, the wrench inside useless against the infinite dark. His palm's cut glowed, aetheric plasma pulsing wildly, a beacon in the cosmic nowhere. The memory of Echo-137's causal loops clung to him, those trapped scientists, the blurred face of Mara—a Concord member he couldn't name—slipping through his mind like a half-forgotten dream. Where am I? he thought, his breath shallow, the plasma in his veins humming with panic.Zara Kade hung nearby, her Containment Prism casting a faint glow, its light warped by the void's strange gravity. Her leather jacket floated loose, her short black hair drifting like ink, and her eyes were wide, scanning the starry expanse. "This isn't right," she said, voice sharp through their comms, crackling with static. "We were in the observatory. Now we're… here."Talen Vey spun slowly, his tablet tethered to his wrist, its fractal patterns glitching in the cosmic dark. His cracked glasses reflected the bleeding stars, his wild hair a halo, and his voice was frantic, chasing signals. "We're in the Fractal Lattice," he said, fingers tapping. "Not Earth-Alpha, not even a node. This is… between. The Eidolon Cascade's raw framework."Kaelith shimmered beside them, her form a flicker of mist and void, her eyes glowing like twin black holes. "The hollow sings," she whispered, her voice a cold wave through Einstein's mind. "The Nullpoint reaches, and the weaver binds."Einstein's cut flared, Izarael's voice slicing through: The hollow hides. Seek the fracture, or all bleeds. He gripped his toolbag, the plasma sparking, and shook his head. "Fracture? Another Echo?" he asked, voice rough, the void's silence swallowing his words. Mara, are you out here?Zara's prism beeped, a red pulse cutting through the dark. "New anomaly," she said, her tone grim. "Dead ahead—Echo-154. It's… distorting the Lattice."Talen's tablet flared, showing a map of the Cascade—nodes like Earth-Noir, Earth-Aether, linked by threads, and a black spot pulsing where they floated. "Echo-154," he said, his eyes wild. "Not NEP, not causal, but… spatial. It's folding space, creating pockets. We're inside one.""Pockets?" Einstein asked, his stomach lurching. Like a trap. The memory of Mara flickered—her voice, "The Cascade hides its own," fading fast. Who are you?Kaelith's form pulsed, her voice a warning: "The Void Dreamer shudders. The fracture seeks the spark."Zara tethered a mnestic patch to her wrist, tossing one to Einstein. "Slap it on," she said. "Echo-154's warping reality's shape. These'll keep us anchored."Einstein caught the patch, pressing it to his neck, the cold jolt grounding his senses, but the void's weight pressed harder. His last mnestic dose still lingered, his mind raw, every scar from Echo-119 and Echo-137 a fire in his chest. I'm not built for this, he thought, following Zara's lead, Talen and Kaelith trailing, their forms small against the bleeding stars.The platform drifted toward a tear in the void, a jagged rift where aetheric plasma swirled, not light but motion. Echo-154 hung within, a pulsating knot of void-essence, not NEP but a spatial anomaly, its edges folding space like paper. Threads of aetheric ichor wove around it, forming a maze that pulsed with intent. Shadows moved inside—figures, not human, their forms glitching, caught in folded pockets: a man writing, a woman running, a child staring, all trapped in loops that weren't time but place.Its voice wasn't sound but a shift: Fold with us, or be the break. Einstein's mind flickered—Mara, her voice saying, "The Cascade folds, but it keeps," then gone. Mara, what's your secret?Zara fired her prism, light forming a cage, but Echo-154 folded, the cage collapsing into a point. "It's spatial weaving!" she shouted, her voice crackling. "It's rewriting where we are!"Talen's tablet sparked, his voice frantic. "It's hax magic—spatial weaving, folding the Lattice into knots! It's linked to Echo Prime, opening a path to the Chronovoid Nexus!"Kaelith's mist coiled around Echo-154, her voice a hiss: "Dreams fold." Her form frayed, the anomaly pulling her in. Einstein's plasma surged, and he wove, threads snapping into a barrier, but the cost was brutal—his vision blurred, his chest burned, blood dripping from his nose. I'm not enough, he thought, holding the weave, the knot pulsing like a wound.The void shook, aetheric wraiths emerging from the rift, their forms flickering like shattered stars, their silent screams a wail: The fold binds. Einstein's cut flared, and he saw flashes—himself trapped in a pocket, Zara gone, Talen laughing in a void. It's rewriting space, he realized, Echo-154's spatial weaving trapping them in false places."Voss, conjuring!" Zara yelled, firing her prism. "Pull the void!"Einstein reached for the void-essence, the cold rush stealing his breath, his past—a rainy night, a friend's voice, gone. I'm fading, he thought, but he pulled, the knot shrinking. Kaelith's mist tightened, Talen shouting coordinates, and Zara's prism flared, sealing Echo-154 in a cage. The figures collapsed, their forms fading, alive but lost in folded space.But the rift pulsed, a new tear opening—a glimpse of Earth-Aether, plasma storms raging, and a figure, Mara, her face half-clear, holding a mnestic relic. Izarael's voice echoed: The fracture reveals. Find the veiled, or all folds. Einstein's cut glowed, Mara's eyes meeting his, then fading. She's real, he thought, the Eidolon Cascade trembling, its spark caught in a cosmic trap with no way out