Trees, bushes and fence posts streaked past Niah in elongated blurs as she rode Steben down the road as hard as she dared. Behind her, she knew Brom was following. Up ahead she could no longer see her family's carriages. That was good - it meant they were probably in town already and mere minutes away from boarding the ship. Maybe, despite all the time it felt like they wasted, there was still a chance they could make it. Maybe some of them could be saved. The town would be destroyed ... but those she cared most about in the world would live on for another day at least.<br/><br/>As selfish as that way of thinking was, it was a war. An ugly thing which bred such emotions and stomped out much of the goodness that remained. She would get crushed under someone else's boot if she didn't learn to harden herself and protect that which she cherished. Doing that involved sacrificing others. Her only consolation was that she had at least tried to warn the rest of the townsfolk. It would still haunt her, though, in the days, weeks and months to come.<br/><br/>It was typical that it was just in the moment that some hope formed in her chest that all hell broke loose. The Enemy arrived with a noise that started as a screech which made Niah clamp her hands over hear ears, and morphed into the boom of an exploding charged crystal. She couldn't know if she heard it with her ears or her mind, but she knew without a shadow of a doubt that there was some kind of force involved because it nearly knocked her out of her saddle.<br/><br/>For a moment her eyes grew dim, then she grew aware of her surroundings again and lifted herself off from the back of Steben's neck. Had she passed out? No, it couldn't have been. They were still running, still heading into town. A breeze brought the smell of smoke to her nose and a second later screams followed.<br/><br/>The town was under attack.