Two dark wings tore free from the swirling light, feathers made of shadow and flame scattering into the mist.
A pair of hands followed, both marked with glowing sigils, gripping the edge of the rift as if dragging the rest of the body forward.
The light peeled away, shrinking and folding back into itself, and Eden emerged.
His wings beat slow and steady, keeping him suspended above the periphery.
They looked nothing like the wings of any creature.
They were sharp, sleek, and wrong in a way that made the air twitch around them.
His eyes glowed in mismatched colors.
The right burned with a deep violet, the left with a sharp crimson.
On either side of him floated two spheres of condensed energy, one crackling with flame and the other pulsing with corruption.
The Dowager stared at him, struck silent.
She had seen human prodigies, she had met divine beings, she had watched corruption twist the world into nightmares.
