Aegis sat naked on the cold floor of Nazraya's office, legs crossed, eyes closed, her hands resting on her knees.
Nazraya knelt behind her, fully clothed, her palms pressed flat against Aegis's bare back. Shadow magic pulsed from her fingers, dark and warm, seeping into Aegis's skin and sinking into her aether pathways like ink dropped into water.
"Breathe," Nazraya said.
Aegis breathed. She took the shadow energy as it entered her body and pushed it inward, cycling it through her pathways, from her spine to her chest to her arms, then to her legs, then to her core, and back again. Around and around, faster with each pass, the energy expanding as it moved, stretching her pathways wider with every circuit like water carving a river through stone.
It hurt. Not a sharp pain, more like the deep ache of a muscle being forced past its limit, but spread across her entire body. Her jaw clenched and sweat ran down her temples, dripping onto her bare thighs.
