The teleportation device sat in the middle of the small forest, half-hidden beneath a canopy that the battle had left mostly untouched.
Damon reached it within a few minutes, the sounds of the Citadel fading behind him with each step, replaced by the quiet rustle of leaves and the low creak of branches in the early morning wind.
He was about to step onto the platform when a voice called from behind him.
"Boss!"
He paused midstep before turning toward the familiar voice.
Nyla was moving quickly through the trees toward him, her expression carrying the focused energy of someone who had been busy and was yet to stop. She reached him slightly out of breath, not from the run, he suspected, but from whatever she had been managing before it.
