-someone was screaming, a name I thought, but it took me a moment to break free of the hold Iepa's vision had over me. As I spun, Trill beside me, half-falling from the stone slab, her arms outstretched toward the exit and the stairs, my body compressed and shifted, power crushing me.

Instinct took over, shields snapping into place, reinforced even as I finally realized, in the split second I needed to adjust, it was Trill's high-pitched cry I heard.

"OWEN!"

The ...