Sophie didn't hear anyone gush over her power; she didn't hear their cowering and fear.

She was in a killing calm.

She was well aware she was the only one who could see through the inky night. And it wasn't precisely sight she had through the night.

She was there as the night unraveled across their enemies.

She was the night and storms that confused and slaughtered their enemies.

She didn't need to see it; she was it.

Sophie's night and storms rammed into the Neverseen from all sides. Their enemies didn't scream; Sophie didn't let them. Her night was like a sharp blade, a cold vacuum plunging into their hearts, heads, and guts, killing them instantly.

Sophie was an Assassin; she was a quick, efficient killer.

She was never one to savor the crying moans of her enemies, no matter who they were, she always killed them quickly and quietly.

Her night filled her enemies' lungs, her storms clapped and thundered against their chests.

Her lightning-filled clouds shrouded around the confused Mirthless, squeezing around them and her lightning searing them. Her lightning was more powerful then it was before, it pulsed and crackled with more strength than ever.

Icy storms froze them in their spots, her lightning running through their hearts.

But, gods above, this was tiring her out already.

Her hands shook in her clawed armored fingertips, and she guttered a gasp as she held her power steady.

She heard the shadows whispering to her as Neverseen soldiers dropped, and Mirthless slaughtered.

"Keep going..." night called to her. Sophie shook as the night and storms started to overtake her.

"Don't stop..." Storm cackled at her. She felt the night and storm start to go beyond her control, and Sophie guttered again.

"Lia!" She heard Lilac cry. Sophie looked up into the pyramid and saw her sister desperately holding onto the empty panes of the pyramid. She finally noticed that it was too strong.

Kynareth gave her too much.

Sophie tried to rein it back, try to call back the raging storms.

"Come back," Sophie grunted through her gritting teeth. The night and storm cave her a hissing cackle as if dealing with a petty child.

"You can barely control our brothers of shadows and lightning, what makes you think you can control us?" Storm and Night cackled at her.

"I'm your stupid heiress; you bow to me, you bow to Kynareth."

"You can't even stand our Matron, why should we-"

"If you do not stop, you will hurt my men!"

"It happens in war, you would know Mentore, about the consequences of war?"

"I refuse to kill my own men! I'm trying to stop as many casualties as possible-"

"You can't see them, can you? The dead bodies of your Assassins are scattered out here." Storm taunted.

Sophie paled. She knew there would be casualties, but...

"Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, they all died under your orders of protection of the elves. The elves, Amalia, the species that taunts and spits upon the Vatarians! And here you are, sacrificing lives to protect them."

Sophie's hands started to shake, the Night and Storm rumbling with more power.

"Think of the orphans you created today mentore, think of the weeping mothers and spouses. Isn't it a promise you made to yourself, once you were orphaned? To never have another child go through what you went through?"

"You will return to me." Sophie seethed.

"We bow to no one." Storm and Night snapped back at her. Sophie took her soul and mind, using her telepathy to throw it around Night and Storm like a net, pulling them back into her body. They screeched and clawed at the net Sophie struggled to hold.

"You will listen to me-"

"Never!"

"I SAID BOW!" Sophie screamed across her telepathic net. Storm and Night suddenly were gone, like her thundering words snapped their bonds. They flew into her body and mind; Sophie's back arched as they swarmed into her.

And then she opened her eyes. She let out a gasp, panting and falling to her knees. She looked up from her mop of hair, glancing around.

The carnage...

Sophie had wiped out almost half of the remaining Neverseen forces.

Both the Assassins and Winged Warriors gaped at the Neverseen bodies, the Mirthless corpses.

The remaining Neverseen were bewildered and panicked, and Sophie's Assassins looked to her. Doreah looked at Sophie, waiting for orders to give to her Winged Warriors.

Sophie played all of their moves. There is only one thing left to do.

"GO!" Sophie roared. The Winged Warriors took to the skies, the booming sound of their wings echoing in the now clear sky. The remaining Assassins got up and sprinted forward. The panicking Neverseen soldiers and Mirthless were slammed by a flurry of attacks from both the air and ground.

Sophie was utterly exhausted; her entire pool of power empty.

Her men and women surged forward, but she turned around, staring at her bleeding brother.

"Meirda." Sophie cursed, running over to him. She ran over to her brother and went on her knees, bundling him in her arms and observing the cut. They spoke in their natural language, Inalian.

"Gods above Alexios, how the hell-"

"What the fuck did you just do?" Alexios breathed, not minding the blood bubbling down his face.

"I'll explain it to you later," Sophie whispered, running the tip of her fingers over the wound running across his face. His shoulder-length hair was cut up along the right side of his face, the wound starting from the edge of his right eye, branching to the tip of his ear, his hair choppy and blood-soaked.

Sophie whimpered as she tried to wipe away the blood. Her mind flashed back to the blood of Inalia, the blood of her own father dribbling down his chest and mouth as the Dunmer steel ran through his heart. Not another family member, not another one of her family lost.

"You're going to be fine," Sophie whispered, her voice shaking, "You are going to be fine." Alexios's right eye was utterly shut, blood seeping in and covering his beautiful ocean blue iris, blood clotting the eyelid wholly closed. Alexios was paling, the entire right side of his face drenched in his blood.

Sophie couldn't heal him; she can't do anything.

Sophie's hands shook as she took the black fabric of her armor, holding it against the wound.

"Look at that; you can be nurturing!" Alexios chuckled, coughing slightly on his bile and blood.

"Don't, I'm in no mood," Sophie whispered, her eyes hot. Half of her brother's face was covered in his blood. He might be able to live if they can get him to care fast.

"Lilac! Get back here; your sister is going to kill me!" Keefe's voice called from within the pyramid. Sophie whipped her head around, cursing when she saw Lilac desperately sprinting towards their injured brother.

"What are you doing?!" Sophie yelled, pointing her finger at Lilac to get back inside. Lilac ignored her, sliding to her knees to beside their brother. She didn't hesitate when she threw her arms around him.

"Lilac, inside-"

"I can help him!"

Sophie blinked in confusion, their brother also looking at her with a bewildered look.

"How-"

"I saw it!" Lilac yelled over the chaos of the battlefield.

"What?!"

"I can see things, Lia! I can see visions, real-life things right before they happen! I can do other things as well, and I think it might be able to help!" Lilac yelled. Sophie's jaw dropped, and she whipped her head around, shooting off her wrist pistol as a Neverseen soldier tried to hit them.

"Hathlani, we don't have time for your games-"

Lilac's back straightened, and she looked to the sky. Her ombre eyes had a bright glint to them.

"He's here." She breathed. Sophie turned into the sky, looking through the menagerie of Winged Warriors desperately swinging and piercing through the flying typed Mirthless and making sweeping attacks to the ground before shooting back into the sky. Sophie couldn't quite see what her sister was muttering about, and she turned back to her. Alexios was worriedly clutching onto her hand, and Sophie gave him a worried look aswell.

"Lilac-"

"Get down!" She screamed.

Sophie and Lilac threw their bodies over Alexios.

Sophie heard the hissing poison attack of the Mirthless before she saw it.

A Medirasa. Snake-like Mirthless creatures with poison spit and eyes that turn you to stone. It was heading right toward them, the injured Moretti family.

Sophie held her body over Lilac and Alexios, knowing that if the Medirasa just killed her, it wouldn't know that Lilac and Alexios were under her.

It roared as it slithered closer, faster then they could ever run.

The booming of leather wings suddenly filled her head.

Sophie whipped her head up fast enough to see the Medirasa's thick green poison shooting for her and her siblings.

And then the flash of muscled leather, and the blue crackling of shields.

Sophie gasped as blue shields crackled around them, the mysterious figure in front of them groaning as he held them up. His massive leather wings leamed with the blue light reflecting off of them. Medirasa's poison slid harmlessly off the shield, and it slithered right into the protection. It let out an unholy screech as the blue power crackled and seared through its scales.

The man's wings strained as he pressed on all of his power, his teeth gritting. The Morretti siblings stared open-mouthed and in amazement. Though Alexios and Lilac were confounded to realize who it was, a smile broke onto Sophie's cheeks, a sound of relief breaking through her lips. Medirasa let out a shaking groan as its slithering scales singed and coughed out smoke.

Ruy pulled back his shields, and the Medirusa tried to lunge for his throat, but he merely sidestepped the monster with ungodly speed and flicked his hidden blade out of its gauntlet, sliding it into the soft flesh between the scales. The Medirusa didn't even get the chance t let out a shriek of pain as it thumped to the ground, dead before it even hit the floor.

A bead of sweat rolled down Ruy's forehead as he turned to the Morretti siblings. His eyes met only Sophie's, even as Alexios burst into laughter.

"Took your sweet time, huh Ignis?!" Alexios howled.

Ruy's face broke into a small smile, letting out a sigh of relief. Lilac's eyes went to the pair of leathery wings on Ruy's back, the same ones imagined on demons. Ruy followed her gaze, and flexed the wings, rolling out his back.

Sophie was the first one off the ground, and she took small steps toward him. Ruy didn't move, his eyes never moving from Sophie's. Sophie took him in, almost like he wasn't real. Ruy's wings folded behind him, and though his face was blank, Sophie felt still cooling anger and panic off him. His hair was in its natural windswept state, his body still impeccably muscled, not a single day in that castle caused him to lose any battle skill.

"I'm sorry-" Ruy was cut off as Sophie threw herself onto him, wrapping her arms around his neck and sobbing slightly into his shoulder. Ruy stumbled with his sudden weight, but he wrapped his arms around Sophie in return, closing his eyes.

Sophie shook with relief, not only knowing they had a one-person better chance of surviving this war, but knowing that Ruy was alive, he wasn't abandoning them.

There was a small part of Sophie that was worried he was going to leave them behind for his new royal family. But watching as he nearly broke himself holding the shields up for them, relief overwhelmed Sophie so fast she didn't know what she was doing until she was hugging him so close she was crushing his ribs.

She could practically hear Lilac's internal squeal as she watched the of them hug, and could actually hear Alexios's long saturated gag. Lilac's hands were full of a warm light not like the light Alexios and with his flasher abilities, but something familiar, almost like a rising sun in her palms as she hovered them right next to his cheek.

"Jeez, there is a literal war going on around you two, and you have to drop everything just to fucking hug," Alexios coughed up blood, groaning and thumping his head on the ground, obviously extremely tired, "I'm literally dying and you all can't-" His face dropped as he realized something. He looked between the now separated Sophie and Ruy, his face in shock as his mind ran.

"You two aren't... you know, together? Are you?" Alexios whispered, his words still heard over the chaos of the battle. Sophie and Ruy didn't even need to look at each other before they shut the idea down.

"Gods above, no! I can't even imagine-"

"Me with her?! Are you serious!"

"Right? Unthinkable!" Sophie and Ruy awkwardly laughed. Lilac focused on Alexios's open wound, obviously trying not to laugh, while Alexios narrowed his eyes at Ruy.

"Good, because obviously, it would be seriously screwed up if you were courting my sister."

"Since you are one of my best friends..." Alexios glared at Ruy with his left eye, "And you are my sister." Alexios stared at Sophie. Sophie swallowed, and she diverted her attention to Lilac's healing powers.

Future teller and healer.

An image popped into her head, thinking about the rumors about what happens to those who can see the horrors of the future. Sophie believed the future was the one thing that remained a mystery, but after her encounter with Kynareth, she didn't know what to believe. Some absorbed into their predictions, some so scared about what they saw that they broke down. What if that happened to her baby sister? Sophie could image it, her sister broken and spouting nonsense while she wasted away.

No, that won't happen. Not if Sophie had anything to do about it.

"Lilac, when did this start to happen?" Sophie asked quietly. The young girl didn't answer, focusing on her brother. Alexios smiled at their younger sister, his left eye soft.

"You can tell us; it is okay." Alexios smiled. Lilac gulped.

"The night we met Sanaa in that forest when we were looking for Ruy. She pulled me aside, told me there was something in my blood that wasn't there before. Something activated as I turned of age or something along the lines." Lilac started. Sophie remembered her abilities began to manifest when she was around Lilac's age, so maybe it was a hidden ability in the Sofiran bloodline? But if that was the case, then Sophie would have some extent of the power as well, and the only power Sophie got from her mother was her Shade powers.

"I thought that it was from Eumelia, but," Lilac finally looked at Sophie, "She says it is from my father." Lilac sighed. Everyone tensed, glancing at one another.

"A hidden Vatarian power from one fo the highest Nobility families in Inalia," Lilac muttered. Sophie knew Inalia like the back of her hand, and she knew none, absolutely none, of the noble families had these powers.

"I can't remember when I make a prediction; I go into this weird... place where I feel like I'm there, but I'm not. But then I just act on my impulse when I come back to my senses, and my impulse is always right after I make a prediction.

Sophie was about to inquire further, but Ruy moved behind her, blocking five Neverseen soldiers as they charged for the crowd.

"We are too exposed like this; you need to get inside!" Ruy yelled over the chaos. Lilac and Alexios nodded, and Alexios wobbly got up, leaning on his sword for support as Lilac clutched his hand. He stumbled, but Sophie was at his side immediately, holding him up.

"I'm okay," He looked at her, "I'm okay."

Sophie gulped as they both started towards the exit, Alexios's body pale and weak. Sophie turned to Ruy and then to the battle raging beyond them.

"How did you get here so quickly? Even with the wings, it would take a couple of days to get to Eternalia." Sophie asked. Ruy opened his mouth to answer, but the Neverseen broke through their line of defense once again, and the leaders of the Cyevan Assassin Guild immediately squared their shoulders, sliding their swords out of their sheaths. Ruy's armor was a lot like her own, almost like a second skin made of plates of black metal. On the backs of his hands and the center of his chest were three glittering blue stones, set into the armor.

Sophie didn't ask where he got it.

He didn't ask where she got hers.

"See you on the other side." Sophie breathed. He nodded, readying sword as swarms of Neverseen surged forward.

"Don't get yourself killed." He answered.

No words of wisdom, no mushy goodbyes.

Just not the type of people they were.

They were going to get out this; they were going to live.

No one was going to tell them otherwise.

Gisela groaned awake, waking up to her son sitting in a chair, his elbows on his knees as he glared at her. There was no one around them besides a large man, blood dripping from his face and a slowly moving chest. But he was alive, but his face was pointed away from Gisela, she couldn't look at who he was.

Keefe's hair gleamed with sweat, lightly whipped around his head as his icy blue pierced into her. His leg bounced as he glared at her like he wanted to jump up and move, but he was stuck in place.

"You look good," Gisela said plainly.

He looked grown-up, no longer the little boy biting at her heels.

"So, finally grew a pair and shot down your mother?" Lady Gisela chuckled. Her son had no image of his typical humor and laid back stature; he stared at her with cold eyes and a blank face. Lady Gisela leaned back in her chair, rolling around her wrists against the ropes her son tied her with.

She just needed to wait it out, to stall him, enough for the Neverseen to save her.

"They aren't coming for you, Gisela," Keefe muttered, not moving from his chair. Gisela didn't let her emotionless face falter.

"The Assassins and Dunmer soldiers are keeping the Mirthless and your Neverseen cronies at bay. Vespera has disappeared from the battlefield entirely, not a trace of her." Keefe continued. Gisela bit her cheek as she glared at her son.