'It's the porter!' Lisen Vaal's voice was sharp, cutting through the chaos. 'Contain him!'
The A-rank was already moving. This time he didn't underestimate. The dimensional pressure hit Cael like a wave, crushing, the same force that had nearly flattened Seran on the perimeter road. But Cael had spent a year fighting things that could crush him. He'd learned to move with pressure rather than against it.
Hollow Step folded the space between them. He was inside the A-rank's guard before the man's strike completed, the Fracture blade drawn, the edge humming with the resonance of home. This time he didn't put it at the throat. He put it at the control panel, the one the technicians had been calibrating, and drove the blade through the primary power conduit.
The pressure in the room shrieked
