The spatial tear deposited us on a narrow ridge of broken stone and sparse pine half a mile beyond the eastern outer wall. The night air was cold and clean after the dense temporal pressure of the linked chamber. Behind us the Azure Phoenix compound rose against the mountain in a constellation of active formation lights that were already shifting toward full alert.
Vale sealed the tear the moment the last of us cleared it. The residual spatial scar would fade within minutes, but the energy signature of the tear itself was already visible to any monitor looking outward.
