Eri's hand kept reaching, slow and steady, like an invisible thread was pulling it.
"Eri, no!" Lucy shouted, his voice sharp and alarming. But the cat-beastkin didn't respond. Her eyes were fixed, her thoughts consumed by whatever silent voice the statue whispered into her mind.
He lunged for her, but she was faster. Or maybe the statue was. She touched it before he could grab her hand or Llarm's wind could stop her.
Her fingers brushed the stone.
And all hell broke loose.
Eri's body jerked violently, seizing up as if struck by lightning. Her knees buckled, but she didn't fall—she remained upright, trembling uncontrollably. Her wide eyes locked onto the sky, unblinking, mouth slack—
Then she screamed.
Raw. Endless. A sound that tore through the quiet like a blade. It echoed off the bone-white trees, bounced down the stone path, and sent a murder of black birds fleeing from the canopy in a panicked flurry of wings.
