Murmur stirred, sending gentle waves of energy through the nexus.  

Eve awoke with a start, then gathered herself. The ‘gathering’ was her defense against the Vast.  It was always present, surrounding her with stringy fingers of anxiety.

“It is time to leave.  The journey calls.” Murmur whispered.

“Murmur I am scared.”  Eve shivered with the thought of leaving the only safe place that she had known for many Turns.

"We must go.  It is your destiny.”

“I don’t understand any of this.  Why is it my destiny?  Why must I leave?  Why?”

“You must discover the answers for yourself, Eve.”  A sudden shift in the temporal wave disrupted their connection.  Murmur was changing.  Eve felt the ripple of urgency in the vapor.

Steadying herself against the swells of fear that battered her nexus and nearly overwhelmed her, Eve forced herself to remember a time long ago, when she was sent to the Wild Place.  It had been a beautiful adventure.

But one that had not ended well.

Another shift in the temporal wave rocked the perch upon which Eve always the calm to center herself.  Now the center was without comfort or calm.  More shifts pummeled the perch.  Every sense in her nexus spoke an undeniable truth:  it was time.

Trembling at the thought of leaving Eve whispered, “Murmur, please be with me.”

“I am with you” can the reply, distant but firm in its connection.

She gathered herself for the journey.  Her confidence was buttressed by the knowledge that she and Murmur were joined, even though she did not know why the vapor had chosen her. That question would have to wait.

Eve’s first step beyond the perch plunged her into a free-fall of darkness that consumed her like the gaping death of a black hole.