The first step inside the range was the hardest to take.
Not because Ren's body resisted... But because the instinct built from years of combat and mana and situations where danger had a recognizable signature said that stopping was correct, and that continuing required overriding it deliberately.
Ren overrode it in the end and took the step.
The door lit up.
Not like the rune-light on the walls, that constant glow of stored mana sitting in passive suspension. This was different, more directed, like lines scanning him from head to toes.
The beam came immediately after.
Like something that had been waiting in a dormant state and had received the signal that what it was built to respond to had entered its range, responding in the only language the mechanism had available.
The guards tensed. Mayo moved half a step forward before correcting herself, the reflex ahead of the decision. Liora's spirit fire lit in both palms without waiting for conscious instruction.
