[BL] I Didn't Sign Up For This-Chapter 67: In Which We Step Into Nothing

The warehouse was exactly as abandoned as promised.

We arrived three hours before dawn. Mara parked the van in what had once been a loading bay, now just crumbling concrete and rust-stained metal. The building itself was a shell, walls still standing, roof mostly intact, everything inside long since stripped or rotted away.

"This is it," Henrik said, pulling out equipment. "The dimensional barrier is thinnest here, it has been for decades, apparently. Some kind of industrial accident in the seventies weakened the fabric."

"How convenient," I said.

"Tragic, actually. Twelve people died." He started setting up monitoring equipment. "But yes, convenient for our purposes."

Azryth was studying the space, his eyes tracking things I couldn’t see. "The boundary is unstable, I can feel it from here."

"That’s what makes it a viable entry point." Mara was drawing symbols on the floor with chalk that glowed faintly in the darkness. "At sunrise, when the barrier is weakest, we force it open just enough for you to slip through."

"And closing it after?" I asked.

"Happens automatically. Limbo doesn’t like being connected to stable reality, the moment you’re through, the rift will collapse." She finished the last symbol. "Which is why you need to come back through this exact location, we’ll hold the entry point from our side, but you have to find your way back here from limbo."

"How do we do that?"

"The compass." She pointed to the brass device in my pocket. "It’ll point you toward dimensional thin spots, when you’re ready to return, follow it back to the weakest point. That’ll be this location."

"In theory," Henrik added.

"In practice," Mara corrected. "My grandmother did it three times."

"Your grandmother was also legendary and slightly insane."

"True." Mara didn’t look concerned. "But the principle is sound."

I pulled out the compass, the needle was already spinning lazily, responding to the unstable dimensional energy.

Azryth moved beside me, his hand finding mine, the pendant around my neck pulsed in response to his proximity.

"Two hours until sunrise," Mara said, checking her watch. "You should prepare mentally, once we start, there’s no stopping the process."

We spent those two hours in relative silence. Henrik fine-tuned his equipment, Mara checked and rechecked the chalk symbols, Azryth and I sat against one of the warehouse walls, his arm around me, the binding humming contentedly between us.

"Last chance to change your mind," he said quietly.

"Not changing my mind."

"You should, Limbo is..." He stopped. "It’s worse than anything we’ve faced, worse than rifts, worse than attacks, worse than poison. It gets inside your head and doesn’t let go."

"Then we deal with it." I looked up at him. "Same as everything else."

"It’s not the same."

"It’s close enough."

He was about to argue when Mara called out.

"Sunrise in ten minutes, get in position."

We stood, moving to the center of the chalk circle, the symbols were glowing brighter now, responding to the approaching dawn.

Through the broken windows, I could see the sky beginning to lighten, not quite black anymore, but not yet blue, that in-between moment where night was dying and day hadn’t yet been born.

"Remember the rules," Henrik said, making final adjustments. "Trust nothing except each other, the compass points to stable paths, the pendants keep you connected. And you have seventy-two hours from the moment you enter."

"We remember," Azryth said.

"Good." Mara stepped up to us, her expression serious. "Listen, I know I said this already, but I’m saying it again. Come back, both of you, whatever you see in there, whatever limbo shows you, remember it’s not real. Only the binding is real."

"We know," I said.

"And if you don’t come back..." Her voice cracked. "If something goes wrong, if you can’t make it out.."

"We’re coming back," Azryth interrupted. "Stop planning our funeral."

She laughed, shaky and brief. "Right. Sorry..just..." She stepped forward and hugged me, quick and fierce. "Be careful."

"We will."

She hugged Azryth too, which seemed to surprise him, then she stepped back, clearing her throat. "Okay, sunrise in three minutes. Henrik?"

"Ready." He was watching multiple screens, monitoring dimensional stress. "The barrier is weakening right on schedule."

The warehouse was getting lighter, dawn creeping in through broken windows and holes in the roof, the chalk symbols blazed brighter in response.

"Two minutes," Mara said.

Azryth’s hand tightened on mine, I felt his tension radiating down the bond, fear mixed with determination.

"We’ve got this," I whispered.

"You keep saying that."

"Because it keeps being true."

"One minute," Henrik called out.

The air in the warehouse changed. Pressure building, like before a thunderstorm, the chalk symbols were burning now, bright enough to hurt my eyes.

"Thirty seconds."

The pressure intensified, my ears popped, the pendant around my neck grew warm, then hot.

"Twenty seconds."

Reality started to blur at the edges, the warehouse walls looked less solid, more like suggestions of walls, the floor beneath us rippled like water.

"Ten seconds."

Azryth pulled me against him, both arms wrapped around me.

"Whatever happens," he said against my ear, "don’t let go."

"I won’t."

"Five seconds."

The chalk symbols exploded with light.

"Three."

The world tilted sideways.

"Two."

Everything was white, then black, then colors that didn’t have names.

"One."

The floor disappeared.

We fell.

Not down, there was no down anymore, we were just falling through nothing, through everything, through the space between spaces.

I heard Mara scream our names, but the sound stretched and distorted until it didn’t sound like words anymore.

Then silence.

Complete, absolute silence.

We stopped falling.

I opened my eyes.

Gray. Everything was gray, not dark gray or light gray, just... gray, the color of nothing, the color of absence.

No walls, no floor, no ceiling, it’s just endless gray stretching in all directions.

Azryth was still beside me, his arm around my shoulders, the only thing in this place that felt real.

"Limbo," he said quietly.

I looked around, but there was nothing to see. No landmarks, no features, no way to tell distance or direction, just infinite gray emptiness.

"Where’s the entry point?" I asked.

"Behind us, technically." He turned, but there was nothing there, just more gray. "It collapsed the moment we crossed, like Mara said it would."

I pulled out the compass, the needle spun wildly for a moment, then settled, pointing... somewhere. I couldn’t tell if it was north or south or any direction that made sense...just away.

"That’s the path," Azryth said. "Toward the arbiters."

"How do you know?"

"Because the alternative is standing here until we die." He took my hand. "Come on, we need to move."

We started walking.