"You gave them a gift, Ellysetta. A great and wondrous gift. What comes of that has yet to be seen, but I will not be so quick to assume the worst. No matter what the Mage may have done to you before you were born, I will not believe you are anything less than the gods intended you to be."

"But—"

"Shh. You are my shei'tani and my truest love, and all that you are is bright and shining. I know this, even if you do not. And that means whatever gift you gave these children came from the Light, not the Dark." He spun a small Earth weave to free her hair from its plait and ran his fingers through the spiraling curls before nudging her back into his arms with a gentle push of Air. "Liath dai taris. Sleep now. And do not fear to dream. I am with you."

She closed her eyes and settled against him. In his arms, protected by the six-fold weave of her quintet, the twenty-fivefold weaves of her lu'tan, and the unwavering warmth of Rain's love, she slept.

She woke to the oppressive weight of evil. The night was eerily still. Moonlight shone down upon the encampment, illuminating the forms of Rain and the other warriors lying motionless on the ground around her, and everywhere the bright scarlet of blood lay upon them.

Panic seized her by the throat.

They were dead and she was sitting in a field of corpses.

But then she saw movement out of the corner of her eye and turned to find one of her lu'tan, his Fey skin shining faintly silver in the night, walking along the perimeter of the encampment. He paused to speak with another warrior seated on a tree stump and whatever they were saying made them laugh softly.

Ellysetta blinked and the wash of red disappeared. She looked at Rain more closely and noted the faint glow of his skin and the rise and fall of his chest. The air left her lungs on a relieved breath. Not dead, thanks the gods. Only sleeping.

Gods save her. She scrubbed her hands over her face. She'd had so little sleep this last week, her mind was playing tricks on her. She could have sworn that when she first looked at them, she'd seen them all dead. She'd been sure of it.

Even now, she could still smell the bitter stench of death in the air, taste it with each breath she dragged into her lungs. Evil crouched in the darkness, reeking of malevolence. The sensation was so real, so vivid, every muscle in her body drew tight. Her skin throbbed with revulsion and stabbing pain.

Ellysetta drew her hands slowly from her face and strained her eyes to pierce the darkness beyond the borders of the camp. Neither physical eyes nor Fey vision could detect anything amiss, but she knew something was wrong. Something was very wrong, and it wasn't her imagination.

"Rain." She reached for his shoulder, keeping her movements small. «Shei'tan, wake up. I think we're in trouble.»

His breathing stilled. He went motionless as stone; then his eyes opened.

«There's something out there.» She touched her fingers to the skin of his neck so he could feel the sick horror coiling inside her.

«Demon.» His eyes glowed and their focus went slightly hazy. Around them, she sensed as much as saw the change in her quintet as each warrior woke, and their hands crept towards their steel.

A split second later, the two guards laughing softly by the perimeter of the camp fell abruptly silent. She turned to see them fall to the ground, bodies limp, throats gaping. There was no sign of whatever had killed them.

"Stay dose to your quintet.» That was all Rain said to her before his shout ripped the stillness of the night. "Fey! Bote cha!" Blades at the ready! "Lu'tan, ti'Feyreisa!"

Warriors leapt to their feet, magic blazing. Fey'cha flew into the darkness. Her quintet closed ranks around her as Rain shot skyward on a jet of Air, summoning the great magic of the Change.

Whatever was out there still did not show itself, but from all around them came a strange whirring thrum, like a thousand cats purring.

"Shields!" Gaelen cried.

"Air masters, deflect missiles!" Bel shouted alongside him.

Bowstrings, Ellysetta realized. The purring sound was bowstrings, hundreds of them, released in near-perfect unison from a close distance. Her quintet ringed close, spinning a canopy of steel and magic over her head. The rest of the lu'tan hefted steel war shields high while Air masters spun a whirlwind to disperse the incoming arrows. The sel'dor missiles were too numerous. A dozen lu'tan fell to the enemy's fire, and scores more flinched as barbed sel'dor shafts sank deep in their flesh. Overhead, Rain's vertical ascent ended abruptly as black shafts, far thicker than standard arrows, slammed into his golden war steel, piercing his chest, hip, and thigh.

"Rain!" she cried as he dropped from the sky. Instinctively, she lurched towards him.

«Stay with your quintet.» he commanded. His Spirit voice throbbed with pain.

He landed hard, but leapt to his feet in an instant. With both hands, he gripped the thick sel’dor shaft protruding from his chest and yanked it free. Ellysetta cried out as pain seared her senses, but Rain just set his jaw and pulled the second missile free from his hip, then the third from his thigh. He dropped them on the ground at his feet and spun a small weave of Earth and Fire to stop his wounds from bleeding.

Ellysetta wept. The need to go to him was overpowering, but he was already wading into battle, blades drawn, teeth bared in a snarl. Red Fey'cha flew from his hands into the darkness.

Something else rained down along with the arrows, and the cold, sickly sweet stench of Azrahn filled the air. Black shadows rose up from within the circle of gathered Fey, as if night itself were attacking. All around, lu’tan went gray, their glowing essence siphoned away in an instant. Lifeless, their bodies dropped to the ground without a sound.