Page 145 of The Fifth Heir

The transparent Shadow separated from my feet and returned along the channel without resistance.

“Fully,” he said.

Malcolm signaled the runemaster to record it.

Storm raised the hair along my arms.

Rafe’s first pulse entered with a soft current that barely moved my uniform. Silver light circled my ankles. At second strength, electricity traveled into the torc and passed across my wrapped wrist.

The scale refracted it.

A small rainbow appeared over the platform.

The clear scale no longer needed a rune lamp. Beneath the wrap, its edge shone through the fabric, turning one narrow thread into shifting color.

The audience reacted immediately.

People stood. Others leaned over the gallery rail. The Prism behind Malcolm caught the divided light and reflected it across the ceiling.

Rafe grinned at me.

“I knew you liked me best.”

The rainbow vanished.

The healer looked at the monitoring crystal. “No physical instability.”

“No loss of Storm,” Rafe added. “Other than what I generously provided.”

Frost came last.

Leander had barely spoken since we entered the Hall. He followed every instruction precisely but kept looking toward the repaired return channel.

When Malcolm ordered first strength, Leander did not touch his control pillar.

“What guarantee do we have that the combined exposure can be terminated externally?” he asked.

“The four runemasters control their individual channels.”

“The external controls failed during the First Trial.”

“This is not the First Trial.”

“The repair crosses the central return.”

Tension moved through the gallery.

I looked at him.

“You noticed it too?”

“Yes.”

“Before today?”

He hesitated.

The pause mattered.