High above, in a chamber that had grown quieter with each passing day, Ethan sat forward in his throne and watched the small gray shape disappear into the treeline.
Tessa was running through the dark with an iron ring on her wrist and a clay jar clutched against her chest like it was the most precious thing in the world.
He had been watching the human settlement for days now, watching the plague spread, watching Valen exhaust himself trying to hold back a tide that couldn't be stopped.
He had spent forty-five points on Purifying Touch, and it had helped one person at a time, one life at a time, but it hadn't been enough.
It would never be enough.
[Faith Points: 142]
The number sat in the corner of his vision like an accusation. He had spent so much, and still the death toll climbed. Thirty-seven when the patrol arrived. Fifty-three now. Soon it would be sixty. Seventy. Perhaps even a hundred.
