Ashwing backed up slightly. His size hadn't changed, but the lines of his body shifted, tighter, leaner, heat building under his scales.
"We break the wall?"
"No," Lindarion said. "They'll be watching for that. If they layered suppression wards into the rock, I'll trigger a feedback pulse the second I ignite anything too strong."
"Then what?"
Lindarion moved back toward the rune chamber. "We don't go back up."
Ashwing blinked. "The hell does that mean?"
Lindarion reached the center again and crouched over the massive rune.
"They designed this place to pull mana in. But every pull point has a release channel buried deep. If I can find the thread—"
Ashwing grunted. "You're going to use their own conduit to escape?"
"No," Lindarion said. "I'm going to trace the tether back to whatever's fueling it—and use that to punch through."
"Dangerous."
"I know."
He pressed his palm to the central line. Not his mana. Just contact.
The rune didn't light.
But something else did.
