Dust whisked up from the ground near Erith as boots slammed down, cutting off his view.

A bowstring drew taut above him.

"Don't shoot him," Maeric pleaded, his boots scattering fractured stones Erith's blast had torn from the tower fragment as he stepped toward Cerus's body.

"I'm not aiming for him," Amun replied, his voice sharp as a blade. "You can't fend an arrow off like Erith, and right now I'd love a good reason to put one through you—"

Erith tugged at Amun's boot. He stiffened, glancing down just long enough to see Erith before snapping his attention back to Maeric.

"So don't give me that reason."

"Can you walk, Erith?" Rin called out, urgent yet relieved at seeing him conscious.

Erith tightened his grip on Amun's leg and dragged himself upright.

Rin sat atop a horse with Rhymera slumped between his arms, her eyes fluttering open no more than a crack. Blood streaked down her cheek and into her collar, and her neck had already darkened into a deep, grisly violet.

Erith's breath caught.

He hoisted an arm up Amun's side.

"Easy, Erith," Amun murmured, struggling to keep the bow steady on Maeric.

Erith managed to stand, but his grip slipped and he stumbled a few uneven steps forward.

"I'm fine," Erith rasped. "We need to get her help."

"We'll get you both back to Tal. Amun—help him up."

"His Kaida is boundless, Rin," Maeric whispered, his words wavering with realization. "He is Velora's gift. He can alter the course of our history. He may be the piece they never had."

Amun spun around, drawing the bowstring again toward Maeric.

Maeric raised his hands, palms open, as he knelt beside Cerus.

Shouts of the Illuminary apprentices carried across the field. The Murasi was tearing through the carriages, ripping apart the last of the camp.

But Maeric's gaze never left Erith.

"He can stop this, Rin. They can help him stop this. All of this." The words escaped Maeric in a trembling breath, but there was a certainty that hardened in his words, as if he were speaking a truth he'd only just recognized.

Erith froze where he stood.

There was something in Maeric's face, something that Erith didn't recognize. An instinctive, cold dread coiled through his body.

He looked to Rin, searching desperately around for familiarity, any anchor.

Rin's jaw clenched. Disgust cut lines across his face.

"He is what he chooses to be, Maeric," Rin spat. "Not you. Not any fanatic."

Rin didn't break eye contact with Maeric.

"You two, let's go. Now."

Amun hesitated, bow still half-raised, before lowering it and rushing back to Erith, hauling him onto the horse.

Without another word, they kicked off, hooves striking hard against the earth. Erith kept his eyes forward, refusing the pull to look back.

Behind them, Maeric remained kneeling over Cerus's body amongst the ruins of the ancient tower, head bowed beneath a weight Erith couldn't grasp, yet feared all the same.

They galloped wide around the camp, and a blinding white light erupted ahead as the Murasi smashed through a wagon, flinging splintered wood into the air.

"That was their barrier cart!" Erith shouted.

"That's their problem," Amun shot back.

On the outskirts of the encampment, the apprentices had regrouped, fewer than before. Thin flashes of Kaida burst against the Murasi as they tried desperately to hold it back, each strike quickly fading.

"They're all going to die, Moons." Unease wavered through Erith's voice.

Amun didn't answer at first. He tilted his head over his shoulder just long enough to catch Erith's expression before facing forward again.

Ahead, Rin and Rhymera disappeared into the shadowed treeline, their horse already slipping past the entrance.

Amun yanked the reins.

The horse veered hard, kicking up dirt as Amun swung them back toward the Murasi.

"You'd better have a plan," he called out over the pounding hooves.

"Not a great one," Erith admitted, gripping tightly to Amun. "Just get us close enough... and far enough for us to get away from it."

The horse barreled toward the towering Murasi. Black smoke curled upward beside the creature—tents and a wagon had caught fire, its flames licking nearby canvas.

They sped past a cloaked body facedown, forcefully pressed into the dirt by the staggering weight of the Murasi.

Erith's arm tightened around Amun as they tore past the shattered remains of another wagon on the camp's outskirts.

"Erith... How close—"

"Keep going!"

They slipped into the Murasi's shadow, riding along its blind side. Erith pressed his legs against the saddle and let go of Amun.

The air ahead of them swelled. It warped and distorted before bursting forward in a concentrated jet. It struck the Murasi's backside, erupting like lightning brightly even against daylight.

The Murasi buckled, crashing a claw through a tent into the earth to keep itself upright. Its head snapped around, eyes locking onto Erith and Amun.

"Now!"

Amun ripped the reins, and the horse cut left sharply.

As Erith glanced back, the Murasi was already rising, its massive frame turning toward them with frightening speed.

"We need to go faster!"

"How the hell do you tell that to a horse, Erith?!" Amun snapped, kicking hard at the horse's sides as they tore back across the open field. The creature's shadow stretched over them as each pounding stride drew nearer.

The treeline loomed ahead—still too far, but their only chance.

Erith twisted in the saddle, vision blurring as he lifted a shaking hand. He fired another blast of Kaida back toward the Murasi as they closed in on the forest edge. Blood streaked from the side of his ear, trickling warmly down his neck.

He collapsed forward over Amun's shoulder. Amun grabbed blindly behind him, panic flashing across his face as he tried to keep Erith upright while steering them between the treeline.

"Did that work?"

The answer came as the forest behind them erupted in a violent roar of trees wrenching up from their roots, splinters whipping through the air in a storm of debris.

"Which way is Rin?!"

"West, why?!" Amun shouted out breathlessly.

Erith hooked an arm around Amun's shoulder. "If I fall, don't stop."

"Erith—what are you—"

Erith dragged up everything he could and hurled it forward in one final surge of Kaida. The air ahead convulsed. It bent and folded, warping in a heavy ripple that swept between the trees into the depths of the woods.

"West.... now...."

Amun turned sharply, weaving the horse through the rupturing trees. The Murasi barreled past them, flattening trees as it plunged deeper into the darkness of the forest.

"I think... I think we lost it—Erith?"

Erith didn't answer.

His weight sagged as the horse slowed. His arm slipped from Amun's shoulder, dropping limp at his side.

The rest of him followed. His body tipped and slid, rolling off the saddle and hitting the ground with a sickening thud.

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