“You! You two destroyed everything I’ve dedicated my life to!” Tallie growled as she struggled to her feet. Tears still streaked down her dirt-stained face. She clenched her ribs from the intense pain she felt as she tried to march towards them. They both backed away further with each step she took. “You have no idea what will happen to thaerv if I don’t promise a sacrifice to the Towl?l! And you stole away my only defense against them! You ruined everything!”

  “Ma’am! We need to get you out of here!” One of the commanders yelled as a detachment approached from behind the wreckage. Their rifles were trained on the logicians. Tallie continued to sob as she glared at them, as if she were contemplating how she would kill them where they stood. “Ma’am!”

  “We can end this now, Tallie,” Ayela started. “Just walk away. Leave with your detachment. Leave with your empire. Continue trying to control the world, so that we can continue trying to stop you… If you try anything now, I will put you down permanently.”

  Tallie kept glaring at them, but after a few minutes of contemplation, she turned as if she were going to leave. Kacyn and Ayela were relaxed for a moment…

  …Just long enough for the witch to etch a spell out of their notice.

  A long pike of violet energy shot forth from her hand, aimed at Ayela’s heart with speed enough that it should have landed the hit. What Tallie didn’t anticipate, though, was Kacyn’s instinct to protect her friends at all costs. Her strange, confusing foresight was a gift in many ways, but in that moment, it would prove to be a fatal curse.

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  She shoved Ayela out of the way, and time seemed to move slowly as she watched the spear of magic painfully pierce through Kacyn’s chest. The clear sky would have been better served with clouds as the crimson morning sun began to peek over the horizon, for Ayela’s heart would drown in sorrow like how the town should have drowned in the deepest of rainfall.

  All sound was muffled, and her body was numb from shock as she watched Kacyn fall to the ground with scarlet blood pouring forth in a puddle on the road beneath. She couldn’t hear the soldiers as they dragged Tallie back to their dropship. She couldn’t hear herself when she yelled out Kacyn’s name, nor could she hear her friends when they shouted and cried at the Ebony elf lying on the ground, coughing up blood.

  “No, no, no, no!” She sobbed, rushing over to her fallen friend as quickly as she could.

  “It’s…Okay,” Kacyn managed. “This is the way of things…Isn’t it?”

  Ayela couldn’t hold back her tears. “You-”

  “Couldn’t let you die, Majjai… I couldn’t let you die… Not by her hands…”

  The others made it over as quickly as they could, and crouched down beside the two of them. Those of the town who survived the attack formed a somber circle around them, while the ships of the empire soared off into the sunrise.

  “…Emira,” Ayela cried. “Thank you for everything you did…”

  Kacyn smiled and held her face. “I hope…The gods saw what you did here, Majjai…” She said as she took her final breath. Ayela watched with pain as the life left her eyes. Her pupils dialated, and her lungs exhaled any air left in them. Her hand was about to fall, but Ayela caught it in time and held it to her lips. And then she clenched fistfuls of her shirt and wept. Tears fell onto her lifeless face…

  …Ayela wished she’d never let Tallie live.