The crossing lasted less than a breath.
One moment, they were stepping through the Shallows, boots scraping wet stone beneath the retreating tide.
The next, the threshold released them.
Vane felt it brush across his senses and disappear almost immediately, as though the boundary had grown accustomed to passing people through it.
Ashe's presence registered and was gone.
Isole's two currents touched the threshold together, settled, and slipped through without resistance.
Valerica's passage lasted a fraction longer, the crossing seeming to catch on her need to understand it before allowing her through.
Mara passed silently.
Then the water vanished.
The world beyond remained.
For one disorienting second, it looked almost exactly like the coastline they had left.
Grey stone.
Grey sky.
Cold air.
A familiar-looking shore stretching beneath unfamiliar weather.
Vane took one step forward.
Something felt wrong.
Not dangerous.
Wrong.
He looked toward Isole.
