Round 210

Seraphine slid the book across the barrier between them, her elegant fingers brushing Jeane's palm as she did so. The moment of contact sent a jolt through both women—Jeane's demonic nature reacting instinctively to the elf's arcane aura, Seraphine's mind already reeling from the weight of knowledge she'd absorbed. "Read it," Seraphine hissed, her sharp eyes darting between Jeane and The Consort looming beyond their temporal shield. "Tell me what that... thing... wants." The air inside the field crackled with energy as the clock face mechanism behind them hummed louder, gears grinding in time with Seraphine's racing heart. Jeane caught the book one-handed, her claws scraping against its leather cover as she flipped through the pages frantically.

I need to focus, Seraphine thought desperately. Can't let this shared memory overload break me now—Jeane needs my magic if we're getting out of here alive! But every word on those pages seemed to echo inside her skull, phantom voices whispering secrets that made her temples throb. The Consort shifted its mass, multiple eyes gleaming with what looked like hunger as it pressed against the shimmering barrier separating them from certain death—or worse.

You have to maintain this circle, Seraphine reminded herself. Keep the field stable long enough for Jeane to find something useful in that damn book! But maintaining magic required concentration, and concentrating was getting increasingly difficult with every passing second. The tower groaned overhead, timbers creaking like ancient bones as more dust rained down from above. Jeane's voice broke through her mental struggle.

"Sacrifice?" Jeane demanded, her crimson eyes wide with horrified disbelief. "You mean human sacrifice? Because that's not something we discussed when you said 'let's find Merrin'!" She clutched the book tighter, its pages seeming to whisper secrets she didn't want to hear. The Consort pressed closer, its many eyes gleaming with what looked like hunger. Seraphine shook her head vehemently. "No—at least I don't think so! It speaks of a heart beating in time with the tower's fall, something that demands sacrifice but also offers a way out." She flipped through more pages frantically, her elegant fingers tracing diagrams and cryptic phrases. "There's a ritual here, something involving the tower's foundation—..."