Adventure of Holly Sandahl 1

Cold vapor keeps spilling from the open stair. Dust sifts down from the broken seal as the chapel groans around Holly Sandahl and the child in her arms.

From the stairwell shadow, a tall armored figure rises into view. Its plates are scored with the same sealing glyphs, and it does not look at the hooded man at all.

The armored figure lowers one gauntleted hand, careful and deliberate, while the hooded man straightens beside the stair, waiting on its judgment.

Holly Sandahl snaps one hand up and the ray tears free, red-gold and searing, straight at the armored sentinel.

The blast hisses across its breastplate, turning old glyphs white-hot. The sentinel rocks back one step, forced to guard the child instead of reaching for him.

Heat shimmers between them. The hooded figure flinches, then slides closer to the child, putting his body between the boy and the stair mouth.

The armored figure lifts both hands, palms open, and the cracked chapel falls briefly still around the child, the scorchlight fading on its metal face.

Holly Sandahl lowers her casting hand over the child, and the air catches. A pale, steady shimmer settles around him like a second skin.

The glow tightens, then steadies, faint but sure, as if an unseen hand has set itself between the boy and the chapel’s ruin.

The sentinel’s head tilts toward the child, then to Holly Sandahl, the heat on its breastplate fading under the falling dust.

The child presses closer to the hooded figure, safe inside the new shimmer, while the sentinel holds still at the stair mouth and waits.