Crows in the Twilight Veil

Kaylee skids behind a shattered marble column, clutching a bloodstained satchel to her chest. The old Orlesian library around her flickers, walls shuddering between solid stone and pale, translucent veining as the Veil thins. Behind her, footsteps echo, one heavy, armored, the other light and quick, in time with her own racing pulse. She presses two fingers to a crow tattoo over her heart, murmurs a warding spell, and the air sizzles, distorting with volatile energy. The cacophony of whispering spirits grows louder, leaking through torn reality. Kaylee grits her teeth, eyes darting for exits as her magic strains against her grip. A glass case ahead splinters, shards hovering midair, caught between worlds. She hears a voice, half memory, half Fade, call her name, impossibly close. Kaylee lunges forward, boots splashing through a spreading pool of ink-black shadow, determined not to freeze as danger closes in.

Kaylee whirls on her heel, the edge of her leather catching on a jagged shard of fallen marble. She plants her feet, chest heaving, and calls out over the library’s shifting roar,

"Hey!"

Lyra halts her pursuit, body taut, while Kaelen’s heavy boots scrape sharply against the stone floor.

Kaelen’s armor clanked as he shifted, his hand hovering near the hilt of his heavy blade. He ignored the crumbling ceiling, his gaze fixed entirely on the satchel clutched to Kaylee's chest. The library floor beneath them groaned, splitting open to reveal a swirling, violet void of raw magic.

A slab of masonry crashes from the ceiling, shattering mere inches from Kaylee as the floor heaves violently beneath them. Dust swirls in thick clouds, caught in the violet pulses of magic seeping from the abyss below. Lyra steadies herself against the tremor, blade drawn but unwavering, while Kaelen’s shadow looms large, his heavy armor humming with the building's collapse.