Through the near-macroscopic perspective of the Magnetic Light Mica, Ronan watched the dust-speck Inner Earth turn in the "ripples" of deep space, along with the wavering reflection of the Outer Earth opposite it.
Billions of Manipulation Lines struck the ripples in the void. Manipulation Lines struck back from the other side, stirring up countless clouds of murky haze.
Most were mere reflections, but some had pierced the ripples, broken through the boundary of the void, and become truly entangled.
The knots where they intertwined were often tiny lives, like microorganisms in the "aquarium" of the Inner and Outer Earth.
There weren't many, but their presence was growing stronger.
And the Fluorescence Lines that accompanied the Manipulation Lines—the Magnetic Light Mica's observations of the Law Layer—were mixing across both sides of the Inner and Outer Earth wherever the Law Hook Lines had the greatest effect. The boundary had blurred completely.
The conditions were increasingly ripe for the Magnetic Light Mica to open the boundary between the Inner and Outer Earth completely.
But that wasn't where Ronan's attention lay. His field of vision expanded again, and through the Magnetic Light Mica's senses, he glimpsed the bullet-sized sun at the center of the vast, hazy void.
Beneath the sun, there were ripples in the void and a blurred reflection.
There were no Manipulation Lines here, but countless threads of light and flame wove together, setting the ripples boiling until reality and illusion were impossible to distinguish.
This was the deep connection between the Inner and Outer Solar Systems that Ronan had discovered long ago.
Ronan regarded those threads of light and flame as manifestations of the Tattered Divine Cloak. Every region of Starry Sky warped around its most massive celestial body, and the Solar System was no exception.
Even as reality and illusion