Elara couldn't sleep that night.

Unsettling thoughts were haunting her restless mind, making her tired inner eye see visions of death and destruction. And Nyu, amidst it all.

When she finally admitted that she was not going to find the rest her body so desperately needed, she stepped over to the window and cracked it open. A cool breeze swirled around her nose, fresh and salty, tickling her nostrils and almost making her sneeze. Almost immediately, the tiredness was gone, and she pushed back the shutters to allow her alert eyes to take in the nightly view.

In the light of spitting torches, she could see many of her fellow Fateweavers roam the courtyard down below, even though it was already past midnight. Elder Thornec had decided that it was best to bolster the night watch, since there was no telling when the Fateless would attack. They'd been spotted in the nearby forest and were assumed to launch an assault any day now. Hence, the guard towers were swarming with Fateweavers on watch, many of them Elara's age, but better trained with bow and arrow — although only for hunting game, and not humans, since their order only practiced the art of man-to-man combat with non-lethal weapons. Or at least weapons that were not fatal with the first blow. Of course, in desperate times like these, many wished they had better means of defending themselves than staves and poles. Personally, Elara had decided that she'd just wack the attacking Fateless a little harder, and that would most likely do the trick.

An owl hooted somewhere in the distance, shrouded by a black night. The moon was nowhere to be seen, and the overcast sky was cradling an oppressive darkness.

It was an unpleasant night, one that not even Nyu could possibly enjoy.

She bit her lip and forced herself to push the thought out of her mind. There was no point in dwelling on what couldn't be changed — at least not right now. Maybe tomorrow she would seek out the Fateless and talk things out, with a fresh mind, provided she still found some sleep tonight. Maybe there was hope for them yet. Elara had thought Nyu's betrayal would be something she could not see past — now, she was surprised to find her heart urging her to do exactly that.

Maybe, she thought, and was about to turn away from the window, when the world went numb and the darkness of the night vanished in an inferno of light and fire. Invisible hands slapped her across the face and had her stumble backwards into the room. The glass panes of her window spontaneously disintegrated into a million tiny shards, which shot as shrapnel towards the ceiling and only barely missed her face. The floor shook like someone had dropped an entire building onto theirs, and wall-hung paintings and mirrors around her started to tumble to the floor in a cacophony of clinking and clanking that her throbbing ears could only hear as a muffled ocean of noise. The rumbling continued with the ferocity of a raging storm, like a thunder that never let up, shooting dust out of cracks in the ceiling and making the beams above her cry out in agony. Her head started spinning as her dizzy eyes tracked the glass shards that had punctured the ceiling and were now slowly trickling back down onto the trembling floorboards like sparkling raindrops, illuminated by a wave of glistening orange and yellow that came from outside.

It took a moment for Elara's senses to return to her. With her ears still ringing and her legs shaking, she slowly crept back to the window. The darkness was already fighting back the harsh light that had temporarily turned night to day, accompanied by a wild jumble of screams of pain and panic. The many voices were dampened by the helmet of pillows that seemed to encase Elara's aching head, and she could only imagine they were coming from down below in the courtyard.

When she peeked over the windowsill, her heart dropped. What had been a tense but calm sight only moments ago was now a raging inferno of scattered bricks and burning beams, broken shingles and blazing flames. Orange-robed figures were lying in the mud like lifeless objects, or were halfway buried underneath fallen debris and rubble. Others were aimlessly wandering around, their horrified faces covered in blood and dust. Thick smoke came from somewhere off to the side, and the black plumes effortlessly scaled the surrounding buildings before merging with the darkness of the night. At the edge of her vision, Elara could see that a section of the defensive wall had collapsed, and in its wake lay a gaping hole surrounded by shattered bricks.

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When the vile fumes reached Elara's window, she had to fight the urge to gag. Her eyes started to sting like they'd been cleaned with salt water, and a grainy film soon covered her cracking lips. Still, she leaned forward into the searing air to see where the source of all the destruction was — or had been.

Her face must've lost all its remaining color, and for a long moment, she couldn't make sense of what she saw. Right where the northern guard tower had marked the end of the wall was now … nothing. Nothing but a black void, surrounded by dark smoke and a mist of dust, with the faint silhouettes of the extensive bay behind it. The wall that had been connected to the tower trickled off like an uneven staircase and eventually met the edge of a ragged cliff, which seemed to have moved closer. And then there was open space where the foundation of the tower had been, like it had just blinked out of existence, taking the rest of the building with it.

At first, Elara couldn't wrap her head around what had happened. Then, very slowly, it dawned on her. The cliff under the tower must have collapsed, taking the entire structure and all the people in it down into a seawater grave. The rumbling she'd heard must've come from the enormous amounts of rock and mortar and human bodies sliding down the cliff face and crashing into the ocean with unimaginable force, ripping open their stony path like a scab from a wound. The thought of it was so vile that Elara instinctively pressed a hand on her stomach — all those people in the tower had just been crushed to death, ground to pulp beneath an avalanche of stone and rubble. They had not stood a chance against such brutal forces of nature.

She frowned.

Had it been nature? If so, where did all the fire come from? And all the glistening light that had illuminated the night?

Her face hardened. The Fateless had done this, somehow, with whatever savage weapons they had at their disposal. And it could only mean one thing …

With a shriek sound that would've been heard miles away, a bell was rung. For a moment, the metallic toll was the only noise to break the mantle of shock that had fallen over the Great Library, but when it stopped, Elara could hear shouting from everywhere all at once.

The attack had begun.

She hastily put on her robes and picked up her poles, then rushed out of her room and down the hallway. Opening doors on either side exposed like-minded Fateweavers ready for battle. Their faces were tired, but also determined — with a hint of fear playing around their drowsy eyes.

Slowly but surely, the corridor filled with a stream of students, and Elara had trouble squeezing herself through the bustling crowd. When she finally reached the door to Kaelen's chamber, it was still closed.

"Kaelen?" she said firmly, knocking hard on the wooden planks.

Nothing moved inside.

"Kaelen!" she shouted, but again, there was no reaction.

She pressed her ear against the door and tried to listen for signs of life. But there was no noise coming from within the room, and the commotion in the hallway made it difficult to pick out subtle movements.

Elara sighed. She didn't have time for this. More and more Fateweavers were already rushing down the staircase at the end of the hallway, fully aware of how important this very moment was. The next few minutes could decide the outcome of this entire battle, maybe even decide whether their order lived to see another day — and she could not waste them knocking at a closed door.

She pulled the door handle, determined to charge into Kaelen's room and wake him up from his deep slumber — but to her surprise, it didn't budge.

"What …?" Elara whispered in confusion, trying again with the same outcome.

The door was locked. But she didn't know if Kaelen had locked it from inside — or if he had been locked in. Had Zerath done this? Was this one of the ways in which he made sure that Kaelen didn't do anything he'd regret?

Elara bit her lip.

She didn't have time for this.

Taking one last unsatisfied look at the door to her brother's room, she turned away and followed the other students down the hallway and into battle.

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