The scent of old vellum and dried lavender clung to the walls of the east wing library, a room where time seemed to loop and fold. Elena traced her finger over a page of gold-leafed script, her glasses slipping slightly down the bridge of her nose. Beside her, Sarah leaned in, the warmth of her shoulder pressing against Elena’s. They had spent three months deciphering the Codex of the Unmade, a tome bound in skin that felt unnervingly like a human palm. "It is a reversal of the spark, Elena," Sarah whispered, her voice humming with a mixture of dread and desire. "Not just a healing, but a complete restoration. To return a soul to the beginning, to the very cradle of existence." Elena turned the page, her eyes widening. "The Rite of the Eternal Return. It doesn't just erase memory, Sarah. It physically collapses the form. It pulls the essence back through the veil and deposits it... here." She pointed to a diagram of a shimmering, golden womb. "Into the vessel of the one who calls." "We have the space in our hearts," Sarah said, her hand sliding down to cover Elena's. "And we have the space in our home. But who could possibly agree to such a thing?" The sound of laughter echoed from the hallway, followed by the thumping of small feet. Leo entered the room, carrying seven-year-old Toby on his shoulders while ten-year-old Maya clung to his leg. Leo was twenty, a college student with a smile that reached his eyes and a patience that seemed infinite. He had been their babysitter Ver mais