The void around them breathed like a living thing. The fractured sky above kept shifting and breaking apart, shards of memory flashing like broken glass, reflections folding and scattering before forming again into jagged pieces.
Beneath their feet, the roots of that endless tree pulsed faintly, green veins glowing in time with Elowen's calm breath, steady like a heartbeat that belonged to something larger than the world.
Around them, the rivers of light twisted through the dark, flowing against gravity, spiraling closer as if eager to see which woman would command them first.
They stood across from one another, unmoving, their silhouettes sharp against the trembling void. Two storms were waiting for the moment they would collapse together.
Elowen moved first. She lifted one hand, her palm open, and the roots beneath her answered instantly.
A wall of thorns surged upward, thick and tangled, bristling with light that ran through each sharp edge.
