"What are you?" Samantha couldn't help asking.
Melusine smiled mysteriously. "I am what your kind once called a melusine—a water spirit bound to human form through an ancient pact." Her voice took on a resonant quality that seemed to ripple through the luminescent fluid supporting Samantha. "But right now, I am simply your ally."
As another contraction seized Samantha, more powerful than any before, Melusine's hands began to glow with an ethereal blue light. The fluid in the basin responded, forming intricate patterns around Samantha's body, supporting and cradling her as the pain intensified.
"The veil is thinning," Émilie announced, her mathematical aura now so frenzied that equations seemed to spill from her and merge with the architecture of the chamber. "Interdimensional calculations indicate a convergence point forming directly above the basin."
