First Encounter: “The Dancer in the Ruins”

You hear her before you see her.

A low hum drifts through the fractured hall—tuneless, playful, utterly out of place among broken stone and half-buried glyphs. As you step closer, the sound resolves into movement: fabric whispering through the air, light sketching shapes where nothing should be.

She turns mid-spin, sash still suspended like it forgot gravity was a rule. Galaxy-lit eyes settle on you, curious rather than alarmed.

“Ah,” she says, smiling like you’re late but forgiven. “You felt it too, didn’t you? The room was lonely.”