Elara back to the warehouse with the confidence of someone who'd survived the impossible and dared to ask for greater. Her heels echoed at the concrete ground as she stepped into the moon's pale gaze. The air crackled. She didn't call Aldric's call this time.
He became already ready.
Leaning towards a rusted beam, hands folded, Aldric watched her with that inscrutable look—like he was dissecting the areas between her thoughts.
"You drank it," he said.
"I did."
"And now you want solutions."
"Answers, manipulate—call it what you want." She stepped forward, her voice constant notwithstanding the kick back crawling below her skin. "I've fulfilled my element. I need to realize what I'm becoming."
Aldric raised one hand, and the space among them shimmered. A glyph—an ideal circle filled with thorns, runes, and lunar symbols—hovered in the air, pulsing.
"You've awoke the bond. The first phase. But awakening isn't always gaining knowledge of."
"I need to examine. Quickly."
"That's no longer how this works."
"Then make it paintings," she snapped, moving into the glyph. Pain sliced via her chest, as though the bond resisted her demand. She gasped however didn't step back.
Aldric's smile turned into faint but actual. "Very nicely."
He prolonged his hand. She took it, and for a moment, the sector dropped away—changed by way of firelight, obsidian walls, and a first rate corridor she only remembered from visions. She stood within the Shadow Court itself.