The corridors of Aetherion twisted like a serpent, narrow passageways and layered wards forming a maze designed to trap and disorient. But they had never accounted for someone like me.
Asterion and I moved in tandem, slipping past security patrols, each step calculated. The fortress's elite guards were closing in, their presence like static in the air, an unseen current pressing against my senses. Constructs moved in silent precision, flickering blue light glinting off their polished frames. They were built to track the living, attuned to fluctuations in mana. Even the best illusions wouldn't last under prolonged scrutiny.
We had to keep moving.
The residual hum of the fortress's leyline-bound architecture pulsed beneath my feet as I weaved a complex illusion, bending light and shadow. Our figures wavered, barely perceptible to the naked eye. It wouldn't hold forever, but for now, it gave us an edge.
