THE CONDUIT
The cavern smelled of iron and damp stone.
Elara felt it before she saw it.
That same wrongness in the air metallic, humming faintly beneath the surface like a note just out of hearing range. The meteor alloy chains bit against her skin as Ravik dragged her forward, deeper into the chamber where moonlight filtered down through the fractured ceiling.
The last time she had been here, she had fought him with instinct.
This time, he had prepared.
The chains were anchored to iron rings bolted into stone at the center of the cavern floor. He fastened her wrists above her head not high enough to dislocate, but high enough to stretch. Her ankles were secured separately, forcing her stance wide and unstable.
He stepped back to assess his work.
“You’ve grown,” he said quietly. “
