Lucian stopped fighting the limit.
There was no roar of announcement, no long breath of preparation. One moment he stood in the cracked center of the rise under Lirael's pale light and the crushing attention of the Outer Gods, power held in the tight shape he had forced it into all fight. The next moment that shape came apart.
Cael's hologram flickered once beside the interior line, edges thin in the distorted air, eyes steady.
"There," Cael said. "Show them."
Lucian did.
The difference was immediate and absolute.
