The cup slipped from his fingers and shattered on the floor, resulting in hot coffee spreading across the patterned rug.
"No…" He rushed to the nearest wall mirror, its surface already glowing with cascading runes. The readings were unmistakable.
"They reached Tier Three without triggering a single alarm…? Just what sort of scout do they have?!"
His stomach dropped.
"Marien!" he called sharply.
His wife appeared at the doorway, eyes widening at the alarms flaring red through the halls.
"Take the children," Arcturin muttered with an incredibly grim expression. "Just as the elders warned he might… The Villain came for us."
A tremor moved through Marien's hands as she yelped and nearly fell to the floor due to the horrible words that left her husband's lips, but she managed to collect herself and nodded. She whispered to the twins, guiding them toward the manor's deeper passages.
Arcturin stepped into the hall just as his guard captain arrived at a sprint.
