Ling Li stood in the void, his senses numb to the swirling light around him. The world felt fragile, as though a single misstep could cause it to crumble. Mei's presence before him was like a faint echo of what he had once known. Her eyes, once warm and filled with care, now held only a distant gaze, like she had been pulled from a place he could not reach.
"Mei?" he whispered again, his voice breaking the silence that stretched between them.
She didn't respond at first. Then, slowly, her lips parted, but the words she spoke were not what he had hoped to hear.
"You should not have saved me."
The air seemed to freeze at the sound of her voice. Ling Li's heart stopped, a coldness settling in his chest as the weight of her words crashed over him. "What do you mean?"
"The Loom gave you a choice, but it was never about saving me, was it?" Mei continued, her voice devoid of the affection he had always known. "It was about you—your path, your journey. You thought you could fix things, that you could undo the wrongs of the past. But the Loom has no intention of letting you escape that easily."
Ling Li felt a sinking sensation in his gut. This wasn't the Mei he had known. The warmth that had once radiated from her now felt hollow, as though the very essence of who she had been had been erased. He took a step forward, reaching for her, but she stepped back, her figure fading like mist in the light.
"You saved me, yes. But the price of that salvation will not be paid by you alone."
Ling Li's mind raced. The Loom's words echoed in his ears. He had known there would be a cost, but he hadn't anticipated this—hadn't expected to lose Mei in this way. He could feel the weight of her words, the truth of them sinking into his soul. He had saved her, but in doing so, he had lost something far more precious than he realized.
"What have I done?" His voice cracked as the reality of the situation began to sink in.
Mei's form flickered again, and she spoke once more, this time her words carrying a cold finality. "The Loom does not offer salvation without sacrifice. It does not care for your desires, your heart. It only cares for the balance it seeks to impose. You cannot change fate, Ling Li. You can only follow it to its end."
Ling Li felt the crushing weight of those words press down on him. His vision blurred, and for a moment, the void around him seemed to stretch infinitely. His breath came in shallow gasps, his heart pounding as the truth of his choices began to sink in. He had chosen to save Mei, but in doing so, had he doomed them both?
Suddenly, the light around him flickered again, and the ground beneath his feet began to shift. He stumbled, his thoughts spinning in a vortex of confusion. The void began to tremble, as though the very fabric of reality was beginning to unravel. Mei's form dissolved into the light, leaving nothing behind but a lingering sense of loss.
"You have made your choice," the voice of the Loom intoned, cold and indifferent. "Now, face the consequences."
Before Ling Li could process what was happening, the world around him shattered, splintering into a thousand pieces. His body was jerked forward, as though caught in a whirlwind. The sensation of falling overtook him,