Mira hurried across the clearing the instant she heard her mistress call her name.
The relief on the young witch's face was unmistakable. For what felt like an eternity, she had remained alone upon this side, maintaining the counter-incantation against Lady Vera's barrier without knowing whether Seraphielle had succeeded or failed. Every passing moment had filled her with growing unease.
She stopped before the High Priestess and bowed so deeply that her forehead almost brushed the cold earth beneath her feet.
"For a dreadful moment," she confessed, her voice still carrying traces of anxiety, "I feared that Lady Vera or the Storm Lord himself had discovered you before you could return."
Seraphielle regarded her with the same composed expression she always wore.
"Had either of them found me before I completed my task," she replied calmly, "neither of us would be standing here having this conversation, Mira."
