LIGHT 18: The Collapse of Standards

LIGHT 18: The Collapse of Standards

In the passage that had become an unobservable zone, the very standard of collapse had begun to waver.

The boundary light running across the walls stretched thin, broke apart, and cast an unstable glow over the corridor’s outline. White particles rose from the floor, changed direction before reaching the ceiling, then merged into another current.

Lumira continued guiding the residents to safety.

But the routes indicated by the three guardians were beginning to contradict one another.

One guardian extended a pale line of light toward the left passage. Another marked the half-collapsed gallery as a safe zone. The remaining guardian gave no clear decision, its luminous markings flickering in broken intervals.

No.

They should be seeing the same place.

The residents stopped.

Some turned left. Some looked toward the gallery. Some tried to follow another person’s back, only to halt partway through. Inside the corridor, the flow of people slowly began to split.

Lumira tried to call out to them.

But for one instant, she was late in knowing which way to send them.

Around then, Lumira began sensing several signs of collapse at once.

The feeling of the wall sinking from within. A dull tremor spreading beneath the floor. White particles reversing their flow near the ceiling.

The moment she turned her gaze toward one, the floor distorted in another direction. When she tried to move toward it, the place that had been dangerous only moments ago fell still, while boundary light on another side of the passage suddenly began to collapse.

The signs would not settle.

The dangerous place kept changing in short intervals.

Before she could choose, the answer changed.

Elia’s white light reached part of it.

As the pale light traced the distorted space, the wall that had been sinking briefly returned, and the flow of white particles grew orderly again. Seeing that light, the residents began to turn their steps toward it.

But the area that should have been stabilized turned into collapse immediately afterward.

The wall sank along with the boundary light, and the particles that had been aligned scattered all at once.

Lumira held her breath.

Even the place touched by light collapses.

The residents stopped moving. Those who had been watching the guardians’ guidance also began to move away from that light, little by little.

Then only the residents’ shadows began avoiding the directions indicated by the guardians.

Their bodies tried to follow the lines of light.

But the shadows at their feet stretched another way. They slipped away from the boundary light, slid along the walls, and fled toward the depth of the corridor at an angle different from their owners’ movements.

What am I supposed to trust?

Lumira looked at the residents’ feet.

The shadows seemed to be avoiding danger. But that did not mean the shadows were right.

In the middle of it all, one guardian approached Lumira.

The luminous markings flowing across its dark garment strengthened, pale lines traveling from its chest toward its fingertips. That light reacted to the markings on Lumira’s arm, and the lines on her side began flickering in the same rhythm.

For a brief moment, the guardian’s markings and Lumira’s markings trembled at the same speed.

Again, they overlap.

Lumira pressed her arm down.

At the same time, the management display beside the passage rewrote itself.

Evacuation zone.

Danger zone.

Sealing target.

Pale strings of text layered, vanished, and reassigned different classifications to the same place. A passage that had been an evacuation route seconds earlier became a danger zone, while a sealed target flashed for one instant as a normal area.

No correctness remains.

There, Lumira stopped guiding the residents for a moment.

Her mouth stopped just as she tried to call out.

Should she send them right? Should she bring them back left? Should she trust the place Elia’s light had reached? Should she follow the guardians’ direction?

Every display looked correct, and every corridor looked dangerous.

If I stop, I will be late.

If I move them, I may be wrong.

Immediately afterward, in a passage that should not have collapsed, the boundary light itself vanished.

The pale line tracing the wall disappeared without a sound, leaving only the outline of the corridor to sink into darkness. Only the white particles remained still, floating in space as if severed from time.

Several residents began refusing to move into the safe zone.

They no longer looked at the light shown by the guardians, but at the direction their own shadows were taking.

The direction where the shadows were fleeing. The direction moving away from the boundary light.

They could not know whether it was right. Even so, they could no longer trust the displays alone.

Lumira could not stop them either.

Around then, the shadow of the exceptional person began touching the residents’ shadows.

A dark outline slid across the floor and touched another shadow. The shadow it touched trembled for one instant, then began stretching in the opposite direction from its body. It separated from its owner’s feet and quietly slid into the depth of the corridor, as if avoiding the boundary light.

The shadows are changing.

Before the people.

Before judgment.

Elia looked at Lumira while maintaining her unstable white light.

The light was almost gone.

But it had not completely broken yet.

Something had to be chosen.

Elia’s gaze entrusted that choice to Lumira.

But Lumira could not choose an evacuation route.

Every corridor was collapsing.

Every corridor looked safe.

Shadows avoided light, light pushed shadows back, and the guardians’ directions contradicted one another.

I cannot choose.

If I choose, I may be wrong again.

In the middle of that hesitation, one guardian began a forced seal.

A sealing line formed from pale light unfolded through the center of the passage. It ran across the floor, climbed the walls, and spread as if pushing the residents outward.

The residents’ bodies were driven outside the sealing line.

Elia’s white light also trembled as if being washed beyond that boundary.

Lumira almost reached out.

But the sealing line had already begun to close.

Then, just before the seal was complete, it happened.

Lumira’s body was outside.

And yet only her shadow remained inside the sealing line.

Separated.

Only my shadow was left behind.

Inside the sealing line, the shadow turned toward Lumira once.

In the next instant, pale white markings appeared only on the arm of that shadow.

— Lumi 🪄💕

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