The Broken Crown

The alien entities had barely finished manifesting when the dimensional alarms began screaming across what remained of the Confluence territories. But the threat wasn't coming from the incomprehensible horrors emerging from the Screaming Nexus—it was something far more mundane and infinitely more personal.

Warlord Krex had found Lyralei.

Reed felt the distress beacon through his storm-enhanced consciousness, a pulse of desperate terror that cut through his cosmic fury like a blade. Lyralei—proud, indomitable Lyralei—was afraid. More than afraid. She was being torn apart.

"Father?" Vexara's voice carried an odd note of confusion as she watched Reed's storm-form flicker. "The real players are here. Why do you care about—"