The air was thick with the smell of burnt feathers, ozone, blood, and despair. The human formation was shattered. Zen was sobbing and clawing at his own face, lost in hallucinations. Ken and Silas were dead. Leo's blank eyes stared up from Tia's arms.
"We are being exterminated," Tia said, her voice hollow but cutting through the din of crackling fire and pained gasps. She gently laid Leo down and stood, her green hair plastered to her sweaty forehead. "We need to fall back now. We need to escape and report."
The arcanist, Tama, who had been tending to her own leg wound, looked up, her face pale. "Tia?"
"The Emergency Recall Beacon," Tia said, her words rapid and precise. "You have the secondary anchor crystal. We can get two, maybe three out if we overload it. But it needs ninety seconds to spool. A full, uninterrupted channel."
