Saphira's consciousness fractured.
Even as her blue scales flared with the intensity of command, even as she transmitted orders across the secure channel to stabilize the fragmenting formations, a singular thought bloomed in the depths of her awareness like a poison flower.
The portals. Why had so many opened empty?
Jack had deployed his creatures, but the sheer number of apertures that had torn reality open had far exceeded the number of soldiers that had actually emerged.
She had counted. In the midst of coordinating defensive positioning and attempting to establish some semblance of tactical cohesion, she had counted the portals. She compared that count to the creatures that had materialized.
The mathematics didn't align.
Dozens of portals had bloomed open with nothing but darkness beyond them.
Beyond the fissures in reality lies only an expanse of emptiness, hinting at destinations beyond her current comprehension.
