By the time Julian stepped out of the room, the building had already shifted.
Not physically, but something deeper than that.
He felt it before he saw anything wrong, a quiet misalignment that didn't belong to the structure itself. It was too precise to be damage and too controlled to be chaos.
Lucian came up beside him.
"You feel it," Julian said.
"Yes."
That was enough.
They moved at the same time, not rushing, but not slowing either. The corridor ahead was clear, but Julian didn't trust that. The silence wasn't empty. It was placed.
Halfway down, he stopped and Lucian didn't question it.
Julian turned his head slightly, not toward movement, but toward the space where something should have been.
"There's a gap," he said.
Lucian's gaze followed his line of sight.
"There shouldn't be."
That confirmed it.
Julian stepped forward again, slower now, attention sharpening as he walked. He wasn't searching for attackers. He was reading the pattern left behind.
