The transition was instantaneous. One moment we were standing on the polished marble of the elven palace, and the next, the world was a blinding explosion of white light and jagged edges. The temperature plummeted, and the scent of jasmine was replaced by the sharp, metallic tang of ozone and crushed minerals.
We landed hard on a surface of solid quartz. Around us, gargantuan crystal pillars rose like frozen lightning bolts, reflecting the pale sun into a million overlapping rays.
As the spatial distortion settled, Ingi looked around at the vast distance we had just covered in a heartbeat. He looked at me, his golden eyes wide with a mix of shock and dawning realization.
"Craig," Ingi rumbled, his voice echoing off the glass walls. "If you could fold space like this... why are we only using this now? We could have hopped across the entire continent. We could have bypassed the marsh entirely. This makes everything—finding the brood, striking the enemy—infinitely easier."
