POV: Rivenya Vel – Azure Spire Guild
The upper wards buckled.
Captain Rivenya Vel didn't need the warning glyphs to know—they could all feel it now. The vibrations in the air, the flicker in the light, the way the stone tiles under her boots pulsed like something was bleeding through them.
The spire groaned. A long, low shudder rippled down the walls.
Rivenya adjusted her grip on her curved blade, knees bent, back to the broken fountain. Her squad was already shrinking, one fighter every hour, one scream too late to intercept.
"Jorik," she snapped. "Status!"
Jorik Hale—his cloak half-burned, fingers twitching with unstable runes—raised both hands and tried to speak. His mouth moved, but no sound came.
His spell collapsed mid-air. Not shattered. Reflected.
The resonance of it hit him a second later.
A ripple passed through his body—like a reversed heartbeat. His face twitched. Ears bled.
He dropped to a knee, vomiting behind a pillar.
