Victor's steps carried him deeper into the manor's interior, the lights overhead flickering once as the temperature shifted almost imperceptibly.
His ether was no longer still.
It moved like a tide through the walls, sliding along the etched ward‑lines, brushing over cameras, scanners, and the subtle currents of power that fed the estate's security grid.
It hunted.
The first tremor came from the west control post, three levels above, tucked behind reinforced glass and consoles still humming with data streams. The night watch officer was slumped in his chair, pale with dread, hands hovering uselessly over the console. He felt it before he saw it: a red shimmer bleeding into the monitor's reflection, forming threads that coiled around his wrists and tightened like living rope.
His breath hitched, a strangled sound escaping him as the ether slid higher, cold and burning all at once, pinning him to the chair.
