Whoosh!

Finding herself appear within a vast space devoid of anything within it, Arcane could not help but give off an aura of confusion as she went over the sequence of events in her mind that eventually led her up to this point.

'Does it have something to do with the Resonance of the Creators?' she thought to herself, feeling like that was the main cause behind her sudden disappearance from the Shadow Plane.

'Or does it have perhaps something to do with Valyr instead?'

While Arcane was still pondering over the possible reasons that led to her appearing within this boundless void, a small white spark appeared in front of her all of a sudden, prompting her to focus her attention on it the moment it appeared.

Bzzt… bzzt…

At first, it looked like the white spark was on the verge of flickering itself into disappearance, causing Arcane to feel a surprising sense of unease.

Wondering why she felt this unease while looking at the spark, she decided to conjure a barrier around it, hoping that it would be enough to help the spark exist within the void for a little longer.

However, rather than only cause a minor change to the spark…

Fshhh!

The spark instead grew ten times larger within a matter of seconds, only to then give off the feeling of gratitude towards Arcane by the time it stopped growing.

'Wait…' Sensing this feeling from the spark, curiosity began to surround Arcane. 'The spark is… sentient?'

As if responding to her thoughts, the spark began to adjust its brightness in certain increments, which the former quickly understood as the spark trying to communicate with her.

Continuing to look at the fluctuations of the spark's brightness, Arcane eventually figured out that the spark was trying to give her confirmation that it was indeed sentient, which left her feeling pleasantly surprised.

Wanting to make sure that its response wasn't just a one time thing, she decided to ask the spark another question.

"Can you really understand me? If yes, flicker thrice."

At those words, the spark did as it was told, adjusting its brightness three times in a row in accordance with Arcane's instructions.

Doing one more test with the spark after that, Arcane finally believed that the spark was indeed capable of understanding her, causing her prior curiosity to intensify as she now began to look at the spark with slight excitement.

Thinking about what questions to ask the spark, she decided to establish a set of responses the spark could use beforehand before she began bombarding it with a series of questions.

"Alright." After confirming that the spark had memorized all of the responses she came up with, Arcane began her inquiry. "Were you the one that brought me here?"

The spark flickered thrice, which Arcane interpreted as a yes.

"Why did you bring me here?" she asked after that, only to then remind herself that the spark was incapable of giving her complex answers. "…Forget I said that."

The spark flickered thrice once more.

"Is this place connected to the Shadow Plane?" Drilling into her mind that she should only ask the spark yes or no questions, Arcane eventually continued with her round of questioning.

The spark flickered twice, which Arcane understood as no.

Though, just as she thought she could continue with her next question, the spark flickered three times soon after, prompting her to pause for a bit.

"Yes and no?" she said, the aura around her now that of slight confusion.

The spark flickered four times in response, which meant firm confirmation.

"So, this place is both connected and not connected to the Shadow Plane at the same time?"

Three flickers.

"…I genuinely want to ask how that happened, but I know you're incapable of telling me that," said Arcane after a bit of silence. "So, I'll move on from the topic and ask something else instead."

Six flickers, a sign of acknowledgment and understanding.

"Did you bring me here because of what happened to the Shadow Plane earlier?"

Three flickers.

"Was it caused by the continuous quaking of the Shadow Plane?"

Two flickers.

"Was it caused by my appearance?"

Three flickers, followed up by two flickers soon after.

Arcane paused for a bit after that, wondering if she should continue with the next question that naturally came to her mind.

In the end, she decided to go with it, getting the feeling that the spark already knew what she was about to ask next.

"Was my appearance here perhaps caused by the Resonance of the Creators?"

Four flickers, a sign of firm confirmation.

"…Just to clarify, was it because I mentioned it in the presence of beings that shouldn't know of it?"

Two flickers.

"So, my appearance here was just because the Resonance of the Creators happened?"

Three flickers.

"Huh." After clarifying the current situation with the white spark, Arcane went silent for a bit as she compiled all of the information she had obtained from her questioning thus far.

"To be honest, I've run out of yes or no questions to ask you," she said to the spark after some time. "We've established that I appeared within this void because of the Resonance of the Creators."

"However, for what reason?" At those words, she looked at the spark in front of her with curiosity.

Getting the feeling that it would give her the answer she sought, Arcane waited for the spark to formulate a response.

Fortunately, after some time, the spark began to flicker according to a specific pattern, prompting the former to push her mind to its utmost limit as she tried her best to decode it.

"Inject… more energy…for answer…" she muttered as she decoded the patterns part by part.

By the end of it, she obtained a response that was far more eloquent than the ones she got before.

"Infuse more energy into the spark, and the answers to all of your questions shall be revealed."

Muttering those words to herself, Arcane took a brief glance at the spark, only to sense that the spark seemed to be looking back at her with a hint of anticipation.

Feeling a hint of anticipation well up within her in response, she could not help but wonder what the spark held that made her react this way.

'I sure hope I'm not making a mistake,' she thought to herself, faintly letting out an exhale as she came up with a couple of contingency plans in the off chance that things went wrong.

After making sure that those contingency plans would work, she then proceeded to send a small trickle of her energy into the spark.

Fwoosh!

At the very moment it received her energy, the spark began to grow a tremendous rate, reaching a size that was at least a hundred times bigger than its previous size in less than a minute.

Though, seeing that the spark still looked like it wanted more, Arcane increased the amount of energy she gave it, which caused the spark's growth to speed up.

Whoosh!

Continuing to increase the amount of energy she gave as more time passed, she eventually stopped giving the spark energy the moment it had grown to the size of a large planet.

Then again, it was more like the spark had given her a sign that it had taken as much energy as it could possibly bear.

Wanting to make sure that she wasn't in harm's way, Arcane properly distanced herself from the spark, giving it all the space it needed for whatever would come next.

However, rather than take on a different form with the energy, which was within Arcane's expectations, the spark instead used the energy to produce a specific voice.

Specifically, a voice that came from someone Arcane was incredibly familiar with.