*Moments ago, just as Jinn had fallen from the tower—pushed off after Verkaryon's sudden charge.
Venedix gritted her teeth as she brandished both her blades, crimson arcs of eidra cracking and dancing along their length like living veins of lightning.
The air around her grew heavy, humming with tension, yet even as her stance shifted for an imminent dash, she didn't strike.
Not yet.
Her sharp eyes never left Malgareth.
"Troy," she said firmly, her voice cold but steady, "where did the boy go?"
Troy, still wheezing from the crushing grip he had endured just moments ago, reached for his fallen staff and used it to brace himself upright.
*cough!
He coughed once, hard, before speaking.
"The boy—he fell off the tower. They're falling fast. Him and that winged freak," he said, his tone shaken but still clear enough.
He paused, briefly closing his eyes, letting his eidra pulse outward like waves across the air.
Then his eyes opened again.
