"What do you mean?"
Lucian frowned at Auren across the room, his patience already wearing thin.
Auren loosened his grip around the glowing marble sphere, careful, almost afraid to put pressure on it. Faint cracks ran across its surface like a web of thin glass veins.
"I mean exactly what I said," Auren replied quietly. "The sphere is damaged. The seal is unstable. Celeste's soul is still inside, but it's not… whole. It's stuck between holding together and falling apart, and I can't drag her out like this without risking losing her forever."
Lucian's jaw tightened, "But you told me you could pull her out before."
Auren looked up at him, tired and frustrated.
"I could… when she was anchored somewhere stable. When Elyndra was still inside Seraphina, Celeste's soul had a point of attachment. But now, the marble that holds her is barely holding itself together."
Auren exhaled slowly, shoulders sinking under a weight that had nothing to do with exhaustion.
