The sky above the Eclipsed Sanctuary was wrong. It wore the colors of a broken aurora. Curtains of light stuttered and desynchronized, bands of teal and violet glitching like a video buffer on a dying connection.
At the center of it all, Cecilia stood alone.
Mina and Marya waited at the edge of the circle of silver thread she had traced on the floor. Ephyrael and Siraaeniel remained behind at the perimeter as an honor guard, along with an obscene number of contingencies.
If things went wrong here, she wasn't sure any number of contingencies would matter.
Silver thread of consecration encircled the altar in three nested rings, stitched with mirrored candles and inscribed plates of translucent crystal.
The runic plates were not quite Ephyraeon. They were like glyphs distorted by the cold precision of debug menus.
Above the cracked altar hovered ten lights.
