By evening, she was standing at the window, reviewing her notes one final time as twilight settled over the courtyard.
The sound came without warning—a sharp, brutal 'crack' that split the quiet like a bone breaking.
Outside her door, the beast knight on duty jerked to attention. He knocked hard. "Your Highness? Are you all right? Your Highness?"
Silence.
He knocked again, louder, tail bristling with alarm. "Your Highness, may we come in?"
No response. No footsteps. No movement at all.
He exchanged a glance with his partner, then pushed the door open slowly. "We apologize, Your Highness—"
Both knights stopped dead.
Elara lay crumpled on the floor in front of the window, body twisted awkwardly, right arm pinned beneath her. Glass shards glittered across the carpet like frozen rain. One section of the tall window was shattered, a clean hole punched through the center as if something small and impossibly fast had torn straight through.
