It was easy to mistake for a star, a faint silvery thread drifting among the countless dots of light.
A deckhand aboard the Seabird elbowed his companion, pointing lazily toward the sky.
"Look there. A falling star," he said with a grin. "Best make a wish for calm seas and fair winds."
The second sailor squinted as the twinkling streak fizzled out. "Aye, gone in a blink. But look there—" he jabbed a finger higher. "That one ain't falling. And it ain't fading, neither."
Gods... What is that?
The light grew brighter as it neared, swelling until a faint crackling sound could be heard, like embers in a fire, its vibrations running through the very air.
The first sailor lowered his finger, his smile gone. "What's that sound?"
The other man didn't seem to hear him; the strange light reflected in his wide eyes. "It's... swelling," he breathed. "Getting... bigger... "
The radiant line cut a brilliant arc across the night sky, passing overhead in the blink of an eye.
The illumination washed over the deck, bathing ropes, sails, and the sailors' weathered faces with an unnatural, white glare. The crackling intensified. Beneath it, a deep hum began to vibrate through the ship, a resonant groan that could be felt in the teeth.
The sailors froze, a primal chill running through them. Then one of them cried out, pointing a trembling finger, "By the gods, it's splitting apart!"
Shards splintered from the star, scattering like sparks across the sky, each trailing bursts of dazzling light. The clouds above shimmered, their edges lined in an otherworldly glow, as though the night itself had been set ablaze.
The glowing fragments vanished over the horizon. The unsettling buzzing faded with them. Silence. Heavy and profound.
Then, far across the water, the horizon flashed.
Bright. Violent. Utterly silent.
Another flash. And another. They blinked and faded, one by one, leaving only a lingering, ghostly glow in their wake.
* * *
Cold. The kind that bit at cheeks and turned every breath to mist. Elara's steps were almost silent on the dew-laden path. Just a soft crunch. She shifted the weight of her bow in her grip, her sights set on the nearby mountains. The hunt awaits.
She thought of her two sleeping siblings at home.
Another good kill, and the food stores will be full. Elian and Lyra deserve more than thin broth this winter.
A faint hissing cut through the stillness, halting her thoughts. Her long, pointed ears twitched. She froze. In the next instant, she sank into a low crouch, her eyes scanning the dark treeline. A predator? No. This sound... It's wrong.
The forest erupted.
The birds shot from the canopy, thousands of them at once. The faint hiss was swallowed by a roar of frantic wings.
The sound startled Elara. She stumbled back, falling hard onto the damp path. Her head whipped around, eyes darting everywhere, trying to find the source. What is happening?
Then a glare flooded her vision. Blinding. Unnatural. The radiance swept over the forest, shadows writhed and danced. And through the clamor, the hiss returned, drilling into her ears, a sharp note that vibrated her entire body.
Her focus was pulled upward.
In the early twilight, a cluster of falling lights unlike any she had ever seen. One large central object burned with a furious silver-white light so bright it strained her eyes. A scattering of smaller shards trailed in its wake, each a glittering streak tearing through the skies.
Her keen eyes flitted toward one of the smaller streaks. Her mind went blank, her body stiffening as she realized its trajectory. No...
For a split-second, Elara was frozen like stone. The comet's path carved a line straight for her village. Then, a gut-wrenching terror shattered her shock. Her hunter's instincts vanished; replaced by a desperate panic as she scrambled back toward her home.
"Elian! Lyra!"
She ran, heart hammering, gaze locked on her village.
Then, a flash. Just beyond the village, a brilliant explosion of silver-white radiance.
Elara raised a hand to shield her eyes, but the brilliance burned straight through her palms. The world became a blinding, painful white. When the glare finally faded, an uneasy realization hit—there was no sound. No thunder, no roar, nothing but a suffocating, absolute silence.
Dazed, she opened her eyes.
In the distance, a wall of dust and debris tore through the valley. Trees shredded. The earth itself ripped apart. The ripple was coming right for her village.
Too far. Too late. A chilling dread washed over her. My village is next. My home. My family...
In an instant, the wave flattened the village, turning hearths and homes into debris and ruin.
Seconds later, the shockwave struck her. The air itself split apart with a deafening CRACK, tossing her aside like a leaf. The world became a dizzying blur of chaos. Her ears rang, her vision fractured. One final, hopeless thought surfaced.
Please... be safe.
* * *
The morning chill clung to Knight Captain Valerius as he strode along the castle walls. Below, the training grounds were quiet. To the East, dawn was breaking, a faint blush on a pale grey sky. He gave it a practiced glance and turned west.
Toward the Grayfang mountains.
The peaks were sharp against the waning twilight. The air was clear. A good day for the archers.
It was during his habitual scan that a flicker of unnatural light caught his eye. A searing white against the western skyline. At the same moment, he heard a faint buzzing in the air. He squinted, his mind racing.
Magic? No... the scale is wrong. How could anyone conjure something like this?
What had begun as a single bright streak had fragmented into a blazing shower. Valerius's eyes tracked one of the shards as it fell, striking the Grayfang mountains. A flash of intense white erupted between the jagged peaks.
"Sound the alarm! Raise the barrier now!" he bellowed, his voice a howl meant to carry across the stone battlements to the nearest soldiers on the morning watch.
On the nearby watchtower, a guard responded. "Yes, Sir!" the man shouted back, turning to activate the magical relay.
Moments later, a deep hum resonated within the capital's heart. The grand monolith in the city center flared with an intense blue light that shot skyward, erupting overhead as a translucent dome cascaded downwards, shielding the capital.
In time. It will hold. He forced himself to believe it. The barrier had stood for centuries.
But then... impact.
The comet slammed into the plains beyond the walls. White fire swallowed his sight, then cleared to reveal a swell of earth and flame racing toward the capital.
The impact slammed into the shimmering dome. The barrier offered little resistance, instantly disintegrating into millions of glittering splinters.
The last thing Captain Valerius saw was an unstoppable wave of ruin.