The individual who emerged from beyond the Sanctum boundary was not as close as Elira had hoped. Tall, in shadow, his outline obscured in creases of dark hoods stitched with symbols that meant nothing to her, he was in no way as close as he needed to be. But his arrival was not what stunned her. It was the aura of fear that clung to him like some suffocating mist, stuffing her lungs with every breath she took. The atmosphere altered, a shock of cold wind that sliced downwards through the corridor.
He tore off his hood, and his face was revealed, and the world stood still.
Kael spoke first, his fist closing over the grip of the blade. "The Keeper of the Sanctum," he breathed, low tone, as if in recognition of a legend he'd thought was extinct.
