When Nyu finally found Elara, she was in the middle of separating a Fateless soldier from his front teeth.

Covered in blood and sweat, her pretty face was lined with exhaustion. And still, she moved with the elegance of a dancer, sending her poles flying like leaves in the wind, her curly brown hair whirling about like an elegant skirt. In her entrancing fury, Elara didn't even notice Nyu, and so she kept chopping down the few unfortunate Fateless that had managed to find their way into this particular hallway. Their bones cracked when her poles snapped them in two, and their lungs produced pitiful sounds when their bodies caught up to the pain radiating from their incapacitated limbs.

Nyu imagined the Fateless had thought themselves victorious the moment they breached the entry hall. With two layers of defense pulverized, they surely felt close to ending this battle, swiftly and efficiently.

Instead, they had been met with a grueling guerrilla warfare in every hall and corridor they stepped foot in — a tactic they were all too familiar with, but rarely found deployed against themselves. With the majority of the Fateweavers still alive and dispersed throughout the Great Library, there was fighting everywhere. Soon, the Fateless soldiers had no choice but to split up into smaller groups as they tried to seize control over the vast network of hallways and chambers. And in every corner of the extensive building complex, they were met with resistance. The students were young, but they were also fierce in their fighting. Wearing their ignorance as a shield, they met the attackers head-on, charging at them the moment they came into view. Around every corner waited a pole ready to shatter kneecaps, behind every door an ambush from behind. And so the advance of the Fateless was sluggish — if anyone could even tell, given the absolute chaos that had taken hold of the entire complex.

And somewhere in between all the fighting, Nyu had managed to find the one person she was looking for.

"Hey there," she whispered behind Elara, who was presently wiping blood off her poles using the blue robe of the man she'd just felled.

She whirled around and gazed at Nyu, her expression a wild blend of emotions. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, smiled, then curled her lip.

"It's good to see you," she finally said, failing to suppress her excitement.

Nyu cracked a smile in return.

Elara nodded at her orange robes. "Those suit you."

"Debatable," Nyu murmured and rubbed at a stain on her sleeve.

They both chuckled, if only for just a moment, when it felt like they were back at the abandoned pier down by the water, far away from the world and all its problems.

"What a time to be alive, eh?" Nyu said and glanced at the surrounding chaos.

Down the hallway, a group of orange figures was flailing at two Fateless soldiers who had been foolish enough to step through the door without checking their angles.

Elara exhaled sharply. "It is."

She brushed a strand of dark hair off her cheek and added: "I must look terrible." Her slender fingers traced a cut on her forehead, taking on a red tint.

Nyu cocked her head. "You never looked better."

A shy smile tugged at Elara's lips and illuminated the battlefield that was her face.

"I'm not sure if that's a compliment or an insult."

"Depends on what you want it to be," Nyu said and shrugged. "I get if you're still mad at me. And if you are, feel free to use my words against me."

She curled her lips, then added: "I'm starting to get used to it."

Elara frowned. It took her a moment to respond, but when she did, her voice was as pure and fragile as glass.

"Truth be told: I don't know. I don't know if I'm still mad at you. Maybe?"

She smiled excusingly, and Nyu nodded stiffly.

"That's fair," she conceded.

Still, she could feel a sting in her chest — from the clumsy needle that was trying to sew the hole in her soul, and failed.

"But just for the record: it was a compliment."

Underneath the layer of blood and grime, Elara's cheeks assumed a familiar blush, and Nyu felt a little better. She even cracked a faint smile.

The fleeting moment of serenity passed, and Elara's expression hardened.

"I don't know how much longer we can hold them," she said and nodded in the direction from which the Fateless soldiers had come. "I don't know how it's going elsewhere, but if this continues for much longer, we will be in trouble."

Nyu examined one of the Fateless soldiers on the floor. His face was contorted, his blue robes covered in dark patches. He looked young, like he'd still had his entire life before him — now, the only thing waiting for him was a mass grave, regardless of which side won.

"They are wearing themselves down," Nyu said calmly, "and they are not fighting on home turf. But I can tell they have the numbers to just keep throwing recruits at us until one of them lands a fatal blow."

"Whatever happens," Elara whispered in a sinister voice, "we can't let them get to the crypts."

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"What's in the crypt?" Nyu asked, and immediately thought back to Sylvaris's little tour of the undercroft, and to Oryn's dead body.

She pushed back the thought and focused on the present, which presented itself to her in the form of Elara's concerned face.

"Those who can't fight," the other woman said somberly.

Nyu nodded, taking her meaning. The youngest Fateweavers were apparently hiding in the lower levels of the building, and the fighting students up here were all that stood between the enemy and their slaughter — them and Nyu, who was ready to put as many of her former brothers and sisters down as necessary.

"We won't let them," Nyu snarled belligerently, and the two of them exchanged determined glances. Of course, there was no telling if they would actually manage to protect the ones hiding multiple stories below. There was no telling if they themselves would live to see the light of another day. But Nyu could tell that Elara was not looking for rational concerns — besides, they would try their best either way.

"Where is Kaelen?" Nyu asked instinctively.

Elara scowled.

"I don't know. I knocked at his door before joining the defense in the courtyard, but he didn't open up. Then I rushed downstairs to fight the Fateless that were streaming through the breach in our wall. When we retreated inside, we decided to spread out to cover as much ground as possible and to make it as hard as possible for the enemy to advance. That's when I came here." She paused, then added: "I haven't seen him."

Nyu nodded. She could see the pain in Elara's face, and she was already regretting having asked.

Elara sighed when she saw the look on her face. "I'm fine, okay? I'm sure he is fine, too. I won't go looking for him."

Nyu cocked an eyebrow.

"This is more important," Elara declared and gestured at the hallway they were standing in, which was already lined with incapacitated, unconscious, and deceased Fateless soldiers.

"You are entitled to worry about him," Nyu finally said. "And not to hurt your ego, but I'm sure in the grand scheme of things it won't make a difference whether you stay here and protect this one hallway out of hundreds or go check on your brother."

But it will make a difference for me, she thought.

"It's fine," Elara insisted.

They gazed at each other for a moment before Nyu nodded. In truth, she was happy they weren't about to part again.

Before she could express her relief, however, the next wave of Fateless soldiers rolled in, trickling into the hallway like a broken faucet.

Nyu wasted no time and charged at them, followed by Elara's light footsteps. Even with their shiny helmets and sharp weapons, and thick plates of armor underneath their dark blue robes, the Fateless soldiers were no match for her — especially with the mobility upgrade Nyu had given the bottom half of her own robes.

Joined by a handful of other defending Fateweavers, she let her daggers spin through the air, cutting deep into every exposed soft spot she could find. Her blades hissed like ravenous vipers, drawing blood with the ferocity of a rabid carnivore. Bones cracked, tendons ruptured, and muscle tissue was cut open like fancy steaks. Nyu's movements were fluent and precise, the world around her a blur of red and blue and orange.

When the last enemy dropped to the ground with a gurgling noise and sullied the stone floor right in front of her boots, the surrounding students stared at her with open mouths. Maybe they remembered her from when she entered the sparring ring, back when the world was still at peace. Maybe they recognized her from the defamations she herself had allowed to spread through the Great Library, painting her as an evil monster, and the murderer of a Master. Or maybe they just admired her prowess in battle. Either way, they seemed to come to the conclusion that it was better to have her on their side.

"Leave some for the rest of us," Elara sneered behind her.

Nyu smiled sourly. "It seems like there is an endless supply of them."

"Good — let them come," a young student next to them squeaked, raising her staff.

Both Nyu and Elara stared at the girl. She looked like she'd never even killed a fly, let alone pointed her weapon at an opponent, and her orange robe was still spotless. Thin and scrawny as she was, she looked like she would snap in two if hit by a strong gust.

Nyu shook her head and wondered why the girl was not hiding in the crypt. "As much as I hate to admit it," she growled, "But I think sooner or later they are just going to overrun us."

She looked at the grim faces of the older Fateweavers around her, most of them already panting.

"Like they did at the walls," Elara added bitterly.

The girl frowned, her confidence faltering.

Nyu sighed. "There is only one way this battle can end in victory — we have to kill Malvorn. We have to cut off the snake's head."

Elara gazed at her with furrowed brows, her green eyes as intense as a summer storm. She shuddered, then said: "He's an animal — both in spirit and in battle. I've seen him fight. He killed —" she broke off and glanced at the young girl. Her pitiful face was looking up at them.

"He killed the Elder," she finished her sentence with a whisper — but of course, all of them could still hear her.

By the looks on their faces, the news had already spread.

Nyu had never seen Malvorn in battle. In all the time she'd worked for him, he had others do the dirty work. But his physique had always hinted at immense strength, even at his age.

"I can manage," Nyu said flatly, hoping she wasn't being overconfident.

So far, she'd never met an opponent she couldn't take down. But it dawned on her that Malvorn wasn't just anyone.

"We can, you mean," Elara corrected and tightened the grip around her poles, until her knuckles looked like marble pebbles.

Nyu grimaced. "I don't think so, little bird. Besides, we don't even know where to find him in this chaos."

"Actually," a Fateweaver a few steps away from them blurted, "I think we do. Are you talking about the big man with the golden fists?"

Elara nodded somberly, her neck muscles tensing up.

"We saw him in the main atrium not too long ago, just past the entry hall," the woman next to him said with a high-pitched voice.

Her face bore a long scar that was still fresh with crimson blood.

Nyu examined both of them for a long moment before deciding to trust their words. Then, she turned to face Elara, her mouth curled like she'd bitten into something sour.

"Taking down Malvorn is my responsibility," Nyu rasped. "I helped him with his evil schemes, and now I have to set things right. Besides, if he is as deadly as you say, I don't want you anywhere near him."

Elara viciously shook her head, and strands of curly black hair bounced off her patchy cheeks. She took a step towards her, until their faces were only inches apart.

"Try and stop me," Elara whispered, and briefly squeezed Nyu's hand.

The soft touch lingered for a moment longer, when Elara was already rushing down the hallway.

Nyu muttered a silent curse, then followed the blazing train of orange fabric in front of her.

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