The key to understanding

Previously

…My dreams were not mere fantasies. They were a portal. And I, Alex, the boy who once dreamt of dragons and distant galaxies, was now standing on the precipice of a reality far more profound, far more dangerous, and far more exhilarating than I could have ever imagined. The lock awaited the turn. And I knew, with a chilling certainty, that I was the one who had to turn it. The question was, when? And what would I find on the other side? The world, or at least my understanding of it, had been irrevocably unveiled.