Amid the farthest reaches of the Roya Frostlands, where ice and silence stretched farther than the eye could follow, stood the Academy of Startorch, a revered seat of learning renowned for knowledge, discovery, and invention. To seekers of wisdom, it served as a guiding light; to the Spacetrek Collective, it stood as an enduring emblem of progress and technological advancement.

For all its stature, an unseen pressure lingered within its halls, a silent burden borne by all who walked the demanding path of learning. It was not the sort of weight one could easily name, yet it settled all the same, quiet and constant, upon every thought left to wander too long.

Even the place itself seemed steeped in something heavier, as though countless emotions had settled into its walls and refused to fade. What remained there was no longer entirely formless. It had begun to resemble a distortion of reality itself, something subtle at first glance, yet impossible to ignore once felt.

“Hmph, it would have been far easier if Sigrika had not been so insistent on resisting the voices that led her astray. Still... I suppose that is an acceptable outcome as well.”

Her voice carried softly through the corridor, quiet yet unmistakably clear, as though she were speaking to the fracture in reality before her. It was shapeless, and yet it exuded a presence both forbidden and otherworldly. Even so, something within it had changed, if only slightly.

“Meh, never mind. I should not compromise any further over this task. And who knows? Someone could be listening right now... right?”

The question lingered in the darkness, light in tone yet edged with something far more deliberate.

But to whom had it truly been meant? The thing before her, or the hidden presence standing just beyond her sight?

“Hm, I don't think anyone else is here but us right now. So, why don't we just get this over with already?”

Only then did the place begin to settle around you.

You had only meant to rest after a long and demanding day.

Yet this place was unfamiliar, even as there was no mistaking what it resembled. The halls still carried the shape of the Startorch Academy, but something about them felt wrong. The space itself seemed warped, as though the rules that once held it together had quietly come undone.

What will you do next?