Ariane:
I stared at the map flowing with light and truth of what was waiting out there for us. I don't know why I felt I needed to touch it, but I was reaching toward the map—with a heavy need to feel it, to let my magic search its depths the way my hands never could.
Amid their conversation, which had long been silenced from the reach of my ringing ears, my mind flashed. Image after image poured through my thoughts as they talked about what hell would leak through as we made the half-day trek to the rip in the rift. I absently listened as they spoke of how many more beasts would come through and kill, steal, and pillage in that time frame.
“What if there is a faster way?” I asked them, their output of ideas silenced by my question.
“What do you mean, my heart?” Seris asked with an exp
