CHAPTER 1069: CREATING THE TETHER

When they finally returned to the Archmage’s tower again, Erend felt the air much different from the metallic tang of blood and rot to the familiar smell of incense, parchment, and old tomes. This was definitely much better.

A great round table already stood at the center, its surface cluttered with parchment, maps, quills, and arcane apparatus.

There were also crystals, brass orbs, and fragments of enchanted stone that Lysander had prepared.

The flicker of candlelight mingled with the soft glow of floating spheres, illuminating the space in warm and bright hues.

Lysander was already waiting inside while pacing anxiously until his master appeared.

The moment Adrius stepped through the door, the young apprentice sighed in relief.

"Master. You’ve returned."

Adrius gave a curt nod and moved past him, setting the rune-etched container down on the table with careful precision.

"We have secured what we needed, Lysander. The Fey’s organs will be useful for our catalyst." He raised a hand, motioning for Erend to sit, then gestured for Lysander to prepare. "Fetch the blackstone catalyst and the silver-thread coils. Place them here."

"Yes, Master," Lysander replied quickly. He hurried to a side cabinet, his hands looked steady despite the urgency in his movements.

Erend sighed and then lowered himself into a chair and let the professional do their job.

His gaze scanning the chamber. He could feel the shift in atmosphere from before. Lysander had prepared everything when they left for a couple of minutes as if he already knew what to do and that was nice.

He exhaled slowly, leaning back as Adrius’s voice filled the room again.

"The entity we face does not leave traces easily," Adrius said, his tone calm. "It slips between dimensions so of course it is unseen by ordinary means. But the Fey’s organs—its heart, especially—hold resonance with the threads of the unseen. With the right apparatus, we can weave a tether and create a way to trace even something like that."

Lysander returned, arms filled with a small box and a coil of silver wires braided together and shimmered.

He set them on the table and stood ready. "Will it truly work, Master?"

Adrius’s lips curved faintly, though not in amusement.

"If it exists, it must leave a mark. No matter how faint or how hidden they are. The question is whether we can amplify that mark enough to follow," Adrius said.

His fingers brushed the runed container as he spoke, as though grounding his resolve on its weight.

Erend leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. "How long will it take?"

"That depends on the cooperation of the materials... and the ability of the people who are doing it," Adrius said. "In our case, it won’t be long."

He began sketching sigils across the surface of parchment, ink strokes flowing in deliberate, angular patterns.

"The matrix of this device must be aligned with both Fey resonance and dimensional distortion. Lysander will stabilize the anchor. You," he looked directly at Erend, "will provide the spark."

Erend raised an eyebrow. "The spark?"

Adrius gave a short nod. "Your power is not ordinary. That Dragon power within you can serve as the bridge between worlds. With that, I’m sure that the tether we are about to make will be able to grasp this thing’s power."

Lysander’s eyes flicking to Erend, but he forced himself back to work when Adrius tapped the table sharply. He wanted to know how a Dragonbon power worked in this.

Erend did not argue and he gave a small nod. "If it helps us find this thing, I’ll do it."

"Good," Adrius said. Then his eyes gleamed with calculation. "Then let us begin preparations. I’m certain that tonight we will build the frame. Tomorrow, we will test it after bringing it to your world."

Lysander drew a circle of chalk around the table, carefully inlaid with powder ground from shimmering crystal.

Adrius set the Fey’s heart within a vessel of blackstone and wrapped it with the silver coils, each rune binding tight as if constricting something alive.

Erend watched in silence with the flicker of unease.

A moment later, the tower filled with quiet murmurs of incantations, the scratch of quills, and the shifting glow of enchantments that start taking form.

Hours slipped by in almost silence. The circle drawn around the table glowed, its chalk lines absorbing the light of crystals placed at different points.

Powder shimmered like stardust in the air, pulled gently toward the table’s center where the Fey’s heart, wrapped in silver coils, pulsed with an unnatural rhythm.

Erend sat quietly, his arms crossed, his eyes following what they were doing.

Gradually, the air in the chamber thickened. Adrius and Lysander’s incantations wove together, strands of sound pulling at unseen threads until they tangled into a luminous shape.

Slowly, a blob of raw Magic energy began to swell at the table’s center.

It looked unstable and rippling between liquid form, smoke, then light.

Adrius’s hands hovered over it, his voice rising.

"Good. It holds!" He turned his sharp gaze toward Erend. "Now. Your blood."

Erend didn’t hesitate. He lifted his hand, bit the tip of his finger, and let the droplet fall into the roiling mass.

The instant his blood touched the energy, the blob convulsed violently.

A soundless shockwave rippled out, rattling shelves and making the floating spheres flare brighter.

Sparks of fiery red, liquid clear blue, and white-blue lightning crackled across the chamber.

Lysander gasped with eyes wide as the surge pressed against his chest. He steadied himself, but his lips curled into an involuntary smile.

Adrius also felt the flood of power and let out a rare laugh under his breath, his aged eyes gleaming with satisfaction.

The two men exchanged glances, their silent acknowledgment brimming with triumph.

"Come on, Lysander, hurry," Adrius urged.

"Yes, Master," Lysander replied.

Together, they began the final weave, their voices rising in perfect tandem. Runes etched on the table blazed to life, threads of light leaping from parchment, crystal, and silver coil into the heart of the energy.

It no longer looked unstable, but shaped into a core of radiant force anchored by Erend’s power, the Fey’s resonance, and the two Archmage’s mastery.

The blob pulsed like a heart glowing with a steady rhythm now. The tether was almost complete.

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