"How do we stop it?" I demanded, struggling to my feet with Rook's help.
"Find Horrace," Milo sat up on his own slowly. "He's connected to your prophetic energy. Together, you might be able to counter whatever they're doing."
The crystal beacon in Fenric's hand pulsed more rapidly, its red glow intensifying. "It's activating. I believe it's calibrating to the energy signature of the spiral mark."
"Can you track it?" Zane moved to help Milo stand.
Fenric nodded. "The beacon appears to be attuned to a specific location. Most likely where they've taken the manticore."
"Then that's where we're going," I ignored the pain still radiating from my side.
"You need medical attention," Rook argued, his hand still on my arm. "Whatever that altar did to you…"
"Can wait," I cut him off. "Horrace can't."
Rook looked like he wanted to argue further, but something in my expression must have convinced him of my resolve. He nodded reluctantly. "Fine. But at the first sign that you're getting worse, we're pulling back."
"Agreed," I lied, having no intention of retreating regardless of my condition. Horrace needed me.
Milo insisted on coming with us despite his weakened state. "I let them take Horrace and my skeletons," determination hardened his usually cheerful features. "I'm helping get him back."
With the decision made, we followed Fenric, who used the beacon to lead us back up the stairs and out of the warehouse. The temporal distortions seemed to have lessened, though reality still felt thin, fragile, like tissue paper stretched to its breaking point.
Outside, the night had deepened, stars obscured by clouds that moved too quickly across the sky. The beacon led us toward the waterfront, its pulsing growing more urgent as we approached our destination.
"There," Fenric pointed to an abandoned lighthouse that stood at the edge of the harbor. Its light, which should havebeen dark given its derelict state, was active, sweeping across the water in an unnatural rhythm.
"That's not a regular lighthouse beam," Zane eyes narrowed. "It's a summoning signal."
As we drew closer, I could feel the wrongness of the place. The air around the lighthouse shimmered like heat waves, reality bending and warping. The spiral mark on my side responded, burning hotter with each step.
"They're already starting the ritual," Milo leaned heavily on Zane for support. "We need to hurry."
We approached the lighthouse cautiously, alert for guards or wards. Surprisingly, we encountered neither. The door stood partially open, inviting us in.
"Definitely a trap," Rook muttered, but pushed the door wider anyway.
The interior of the lighthouse was a single circular chamber, its walls lined with the same symbols we'd seen on the altar. A spiral staircase wound upward toward the light mechanism at the top. But what caught my attention was the center of the room.
There, suspended in a sphere of crackling energy, was Horrace. His tentacles pressed against the inside of the barrier, his twelve eyes blinking frantically when he spotted me. He made a series of desperate musical notes that were muffled by his prison. Milo's skeltons were holding onto him looking confused and panicked.
"Horrace!" I rushed forward, only to be yanked back by Rook as a bolt of energy scorched the floor where I would have stepped.
"Careful," he growled. "The floor is warded."
Now that I looked more carefully, I could see intricate patterns carved into the stone floor, forming a complex magical circuit that surrounded Horrace's prison.
"Welcome, Chalice-Bearer," a voice echoed from above. "We've been waiting for you."
A figure descended the spiral staircase, hooded and robed in the now-familiar garb of the Harbinger cultists. But unlike the others we'd encountered, this one moved with confident grace, power radiating from every step.
"Release Horrace," my blue markings flared with my anger.
The cultist laughed, the sound echoing unnaturally in the circular chamber. "Your pet will be returned to you once he has served his purpose." The figure reached the bottom of the stairs and pushed back their hood, revealing a woman with sharp features and eyes that glowed with an inner red light. "As will you."
"Who are you?" Fenric's tablet scanning the newcomer.
"I am the Voice of the Harbingers," she spread her arms wide. "The herald of what is to come."
