His voice came calm, but even Elias could feel the shift in tone—curiosity laced behind it. The crimson mist at his feet tightened its swirl.
Emma gave a small nod without looking back.
"Ready," she said. "I've completed the final alignments. Once we load him into the channel, the observatory will do the rest."
She pressed two fingers to a smooth recess beside the instrument's core. With a faint mechanical hiss, a tray unfolded from the telescope's lower frame—a rectangular basin with softly rounded edges. The metal shimmered unnaturally, almost like water suspended in a mirrored sheet. Pale pulses of spirit energy flowed across its surface in slow, circuit-like rings.
