Eva noticed her knees trembling as she stopped staring at the point where Mara had vanished. The universe seemed stable again, but this wasn't a recovery. This was a lockup.
The device on her wrist was silent.
So silent.
"Where did you put it?" Eva asked.
Her voice didn't echo. This was proof that Ekrech was still there.
"Nowhere," Ekrech said.
"A moment."
Eva closed her eyes.
"A timeless holding space…"
"No," Ekrech said.
"The very middle of time."
Eva gasped.
"The threshold."
"Yes."
The threshold…
Not between universes; that micro-moment of no return, existing between decisions. The void immediately before a decision is made. Someone who enters it can never fully choose.
"You can't do that," Eva said.
"Someone held there… is torn apart."
Ekrech's voice was calm.
"Not torn apart," he said.
"They are fixed. Just like you did to me."
Eva's eyes widened.
"So that's why you didn't die…"
"Yes," said Ekrech.
"You imprisoned me on a threshold. I was neither dead nor alive. Neither here nor there."
Eva stepped back.
"Without knowing this—"
"What you do unknowingly," said Ekrech,
"is more instructive than what you do knowingly."
Eva clenched her fists.
"I'll get Mara out of there."
"How?" asked Ekrech.
"You spent years there while I was there."
Eva stopped.
At this point…
She needed another name.
She didn't want to accept it.
"Don't call her," said Ekrech. "If you do, you can't go back."
Eva looked up.
"I'm not coming back anyway."
The passage opened differently this time.
It wasn't cold. It wasn't bright either.
It was silent.
When Eva stepped in, there was a single chair in front of her. The man sitting in the chair looked up.
"You're late," he said.
Noah.
Eva's voice trailed off.
"You're alive."
Noah shrugged.
"That's relative," he said.
"Why did you bother me?"
Eva took a deep breath.
"Mara," she said.
"She's being held at the Threshold."
Noah narrowed his eyes.
"Who did it?"
"Ekrech."
Noah stood up.
"No," he said.
"He couldn't."
"He did."
"Noah," Eva said.
"I didn't come here to argue this with you."
The man was silent for a long time.
"What do you want from me?"
"The only way to get him out of there."
Noah laughed. It wasn't cheerful.
"Do you know the price?"
Eva shook her head.
"I won't sacrifice someone for a greater good."
Noah raised his eyebrows.
"That was your old line."
"Not anymore."
"Noah," Eva said,
"if I have to risk the universe to save someone…
the universe waits."
Silence.
Noah slowly shook his head.
"Ekrech is right," he said.
"You've changed."
"Yes," Eva said.
"And I'm learning to live with it."
Noah took a deep breath.
"If we break the Threshold," he said,
"there's no turning back. Time loses its concept of decision."
"I know."
"That means chaos."
"No," Eva said.
"That's freedom."
Noah looked at Eva.
"Are you going to sacrifice me too?"
Eva didn't avert her gaze.
"No," she said.
"I won't sacrifice anyone this time."
Noah laughed.
"That's the most dangerous sentence."
When the threshold opened, Mara couldn't breathe.
Eva ran towards her.
"Mara!"
"Eva?"
"It's like… I keep making decisions but never living any of them."
Eva couldn't hold back her tears.
"Hold on," she said.
"I'm taking you out."
Ekrech's voice echoed.
"If you do this," he said,
"my plan will enter an irreversible phase."
Eva looked up.
"What's your plan, Ekrech?"
Silence.
Then:
"A universe where heroes are no longer needed."
Eva gritted her teeth.
"Then," she said,
"I'll be the first one not to be a hero."
And she broke through the threshold.
The universe screamed.