"Show me," I said.
The healer set the vial carefully on the table between us. The liquid inside continued its slow, unnatural pulse, crimson bleeding into black and back again, like something breathing beneath the glass.
"I have never seen anything behave this way," she admitted. "Blood does not change composition on its own. Not without a reason actively causing it."
Elara stared at the vial, her exhaustion momentarily forgotten. "Is it connected to me. Right now. Still."
"I believe so," the healer said carefully. "Which concerns me, because it means whatever sealed itself back beneath that altar did not simply retreat. It left something behind, or perhaps more accurately, it left a piece of itself attached."
"Attached where," I asked.
"I do not know yet," the healer admitted. "I wo
