Horrace, to my surprise, perked up at Zane's voice. Several tentacles waved in what seemed like greeting.
"This is Horrace," I introduced. "He's the monster from the prophecy."
"Of course he is," Zane nodded, as if inter-dimensional manticores were an everyday occurrence in his world. Maybe they were. "Does he bite?"
"No, but he knows all the lyrics to Cats," Milo offered helpfully.
Amusement flickered across Zane's face. "Terrifying."
As we made our way up to my apartment, Zane fell into step beside me, his eyes occasionally flicking to Horrace.
"He's bonded to you," he observed quietly.
"How can you tell?"
"The energy pattern." He gestured vaguely to where Horrace's tentacle wrapped around my wrist. "I hunted inter-dimensional entities for decades, remember? They only form bonds like that when they've found an anchor they trust completely."
I wasn't sure how to respond to that. The idea that this strange, lost creature trusted me so completely felt like both a gift and a burden.
"Is that a problem?" I was suddenly concerned by his scrutiny.
Zane's expression softened unexpectedly. "No. But it makes you more unpredictable."
"That seems to be the consensus," I muttered.
When we entered my apartment, Horrace immediately tensed. His colors shifted rapidly, and he made a series of sharp, discordant notes that hurt my ears.
"What's wrong?" I looked at him in concern.
Through our connection, I sensed his distress, his reaction to the unfamiliar space with its strange energies. The surveillance orbs that floated in every corner seemed particularly distressing to him.
"The monitoring spells," Zane realized. "They're designed to detect and suppress abnormal magical signatures. He's registering as a threat."
As if in response, alarms suddenly blared. Red lights began flashing from the ceiling, and a mechanical voice announced: "WARNING: INTER-DIMENSIONAL BREACH DETECTED. CONTAINMENT PROTOCOLS ENGAGED."
"Oh, for fuck's sake," I groaned as panels in the walls slid open, revealing what looked like magical containment fields powering up.
"Fenric, shut it down!" I shouted over the alarms.
Horrace was trembling violently now, his form beginning to destabilize under the stress. I could feel his panic through our connection, raw and primal. The blue markings on my arm flared in response, pulsing with increasing intensity.
"The system is automated!" Fenric shouted back, frantically typing on his tablet. "I need override clearance!"
Rook moved with surprising speed, physically ripping one of the alarm panels from the wall. It didn't help, the system was magically powered, not electrical.
Zane grabbed my shoulders, his mismatched eyes locking with mine. "Winter, you need to calm him down. Your connection can stabilize him."
I nodded, forcing myself to take deep breaths despite the chaos. I reached up, cradling Horrace's face between my hands.
"Horrace, look at me. Focus on me. You're safe. I won't let anything hurt you."
Several of his eyes swiveled to meet mine, wild with fear. I strengthened our connection, channeling the energy from my prophetic markings deliberately toward him, creating a feedback loop of calm and reassurance. I had no idea how I knew to do it, it just happened.
"That's it," I encouraged as his trembling began to subside. "We're together. Remember? I promised we'd figure this out together."
Slowly, his form stabilized. The tentacle wrapped around my wrist pulsed in rhythm with my markings, strengthening our bond. The alarms continued to blare, but Horrace was no longer reacting to them.
"Got it!" Fenric finally shouted, and the alarms abruptly ceased. The sudden silence was almost as jarring as the noise had been.
