Unstable portals

Ecstasy. Agony.

Stretching. Thinning.

Full. Empty.

Reality lost all meaning between those fractured sensations. Pressure pulled her apart and **** her together in the same instant, as though unseen hands kneaded her existence like softened wax. Nails bit into her hips, or perhaps her hips drove into them, the distinction dissolving into a blur of sensation. Coarse fur scraped along her back and side, the texture melting into her skin until she could not tell where one body ended and the other began.

A growl reverberated through her skull, distant and overwhelming all at once, its vibration drowning thought itself. Her heartbeat stuttered, doubled, multiplied, then collapsed into a single thunderous pulse that seemed to echo from every direction. Color overtook everything. Purple bled into green, green devoured black, and black swallowed all, until those hues were the only truths left to her.

Then came the voice.

Sweet. Melodious. Alluring.

It cut through her like a blade drawn slowly across silk. Her awareness split, her head stretched impossibly far from her body as if the tether between them had been pulled taut beyond reason.

Loud. Booming. Authoritative.

Body and soul snapped together again like a child’s favourite inflated bladder bouncing back after a hard smack. Sensation flooded back in a rush too sharp to bear. The dim, familiar glow of bioluminescent lichen greeted her wavering vision, its soft green light clinging to jagged stone and slick surfaces. The sudden urge to vomit taking over all her senses as she and Sorndyn tumbled out of the portal.

She and Sorndyn tumbled from the portal in a tangled mass, the impact jarring what little stability she had regained. His grip never faltered, iron-strong as he absorbed the **** and rolled with it, shielding her from the worst of it. Her lungs seized, then dragged in breath with **** greed. Violet-aquamarine fluid spilled from her lips in a **** rush, splattering across the stone in glistening streaks. Beside her, Sorndyn snorted violently, multicolored ichor spraying from his nostrils as he shook his massive head.

The air cackled. Residual magic poured from the portal in unstable waves, prickling across her skin like a storm pressing too close. The surface behind them churned, no longer smooth but writhing, as if something beneath strained against its bounds.

The faint haze of one of her guards started forming on the roiling surface. For a fleeting instant he was whole, stepping forward through the threshold, his outline wavering like a reflection on disturbed water. Then the distortion intensified. His body folded in on itself with unnatural precision, limbs bending where they should not, compressing as though reality itself had been miswritten him as one of her spidersilk dresses.

A hand emerged first, then a head. The portal’s obsidian frame trembled, a low groan vibrating through the stone as cracks spidered outward. Onyx lightning raced across the surface, jagged and hungry. The guard’s face twisted, not in pain, but in something grotesquely wrong, a parody of expression that lingered for a heartbeat too long.

No magic wielder, no matter how astute, could pinpoint the precise moment when the portal vanished completely. One moment it existed, strained and collapsing, and the next it simply… ceased. An arm, the front half of a head, and part of a torso wetly slapped the polished floor. All was still. Haggard breaths released in **** pants echoed in the otherwise silent room.

The construct shuddered again. Aluziira’s gaze fixed upon it, unblinking. The once-perfect circle had warped, its upper arc sagging inward while the left side rippled like a serpent caught mid-coil. Deep fissures split the surface, and from them spilled tendrils of lilac and sickly green energy that lashed outward into empty air.

Sorndyn was the only one to notice the sudden high pitch noise blaring, his canine ears flickering back as his hold over his mate tightened. Pain flared across her wounded thigh as he tucked her inwards, angling away.

The portal convulsed only once before bursting.

Razor-thin shards of obsidian tore free in a violent spray, slicing through the air with lethal speed. They struck Sorndyn’s back in a scattered barrage, embedding in fur and flesh alike. Deep grunts belied no pain, but Aluziira knew better.

Another detonation echoed deeper within the cavern. Distant screams followed, warped by distance and stone. The hollowed stalactite that housed them trembled, a low, ominous vibration rolling through its vast interior. Dust sifted down in soft clouds, catching the dim light, but the structure held firm. The warding enchantments endured, ancient and stubborn against the chaos. It would take much more than two malfunctioning portals to bring down House Eilsana’s premier outpost.

Slowly, Sorndyn rose from his crouch. His muscles flexed and released, shaking off tension as he straightened, revealing her to the others gathered nearby. Relief spread in uneven murmurs, sharp breaths and quiet exclamations breaking the lingering stillness.

A smooth, uncalloused hand swept over Aluziira’s forehead as Brinalla checked her over. Stinking pools of blood puddled on the floor, their sulphuric tainted stench wafting in stale curls.

“Mistress, Lord Rylraen would have a word with you.”