The first light of day was not golden, but blue—cold Vein energy flickering across the battered skyline as the Dominion's Emberfall Protocol began.
It started with a shudder beneath the city's streets. Selene, Lysara, and Whisper felt it first, deep in the tunnels, as the Vein lines pulsed, then flickered, then began to die.
Selene's eyes widened. "They're cutting the main lines—now!"
Lysara cursed, scrambling to reroute the grid. "We need to stabilize the backup conduits, or the clinics will go dark."
Whisper pressed both hands to the stone, chanting softly. "The Vein is wounded. Hold, little river. Hold."
Above, the city's lights sputtered and died. The forges went cold. In the clinics, Mira's hands glowed faintly as she worked by lantern light, her voice steady even as the wounded moaned in fear.
"Stay calm," she said, moving from cot to cot. "We've prepared for this. We're not alone."
---
Kael and Garrick stood at the north barricade, watching the Dominion's ranks form up in the mist.
Garrick rolled his shoulders, testing the bandage on his arm. "They're coming hard this time."
Kael nodded, tightening his grip on the relic. "We hold as long as we can. If they break through—fall back to the square."
Jaxen, his face smeared with soot, grinned. "If they break through, they'll wish they hadn't."
The first wave hit. Dominion shock troops surged forward, Vein rifles blazing. The Marshwalkers' traps slowed them, but the enemy pressed on, relentless.
Nalah, crouched behind a barricade, shouted, "Now, Sava!"
Sava triggered a charge, collapsing a section of wall and sending a dozen Dominion soldiers tumbling into the mud. The defenders cheered, but the next wave was already coming.
Kael raised his hand, channeling Vein energy into a shimmering barrier. The Dominion's bolts splashed harmlessly against it, buying precious seconds for Garrick and the Emberhands to ignite another line of disruptors.
"Pull back to the second line!" Kael called.
The defenders retreated in good order, fighting for every step.
---
Nirael's Skyfarers launched at dawn, windships darting between the clouds. The Dominion's new stormcaster, smaller but faster, fired arcs of Vein lightning at the city's towers.
"Jessa, on my wing!" Nirael shouted, banking hard to avoid a blast.
Jessa's voice crackled over the comm. "They're targeting the comm spires. If they take those out, we'll be blind."
Nirael gritted her teeth. "Then hit them first. All ships, target the stormcaster's aft!"
The Skyfarers dove, firepots trailing smoke. One struck home, and the stormcaster's shields flickered. But a Skyfarer ship was hit, spiraling down in flames. Nirael saw the crew bail out, parachutes blooming against the dawn.
"Keep fighting!" she called. "For Tovan, for Liraine!"
---
In the darkness below, Selene, Lysara, and Whisper worked frantically.
Selene's hands shook as she twisted wires and set the harmonizer's core. "If I can't get this stable, the whole grid will collapse."
Lysara wiped sweat from her brow. "You can do it, Selene. Just breathe."
Whisper's chant grew louder, the Vein's current swirling around them. "The city remembers. The Vein remembers."
The harmonizer pulsed, and for a moment, light flickered through the tunnels. Selene gasped, tears in her eyes. "It's working. It's working!"
Lysara grinned. "You did it. Now let's get out of here before the Dominion finds us."
They hurried toward the surface, the sound of distant explosions echoing above.
---
The defenders fell back to the market square, where Mira and the healers worked in a makeshift triage.
Garrick staggered in, blood streaking his face. "We're losing the north quarter!"
Mira caught him, pressing a cloth to his wound. "You're not dying on me, Garrick."
He managed a weak grin. "Wouldn't dream of it."
Kael arrived, breathless, the relic glowing at his chest. He knelt beside a wounded Marshwalker. "Hold on. We're not done yet."
Nalah slumped against the barricade, eyes haunted. "They just keep coming."
Kael met her gaze. "So do we."
---
Across the square, the Dominion's Iron Admiral watched the city's defenses crumble.
"Push forward," she ordered. "No mercy. The Riftborne is near."
Saren Voss, standing at her side, smiled thinly. "Soon, this will all be over."
---
The city of Liraine was a crucible of chaos and courage. Dawn's pale light barely pierced the smoke as the Dominion's second assault crashed against battered barricades. The Emberfall Protocol had plunged whole quarters into darkness, but the defenders fought on—each alley, rooftop, and tunnel a battlefield of desperate hope.
Kael's voice rang out above the roar. "Hold the line! Marshwalkers, left flank—now!"
Nalah and Sava, faces streaked with grime, sprang from cover as a fresh wave of Dominion soldiers surged forward, Vein rifles blazing. Sava's hand trembled as she set a tripwire, but Nalah steadied her with a touch.
"You're doing fine," Nalah whispered. "Just like we practiced."
Sava nodded, swallowing her fear. The trap snapped, sending enemy troops sprawling. For a moment, the defenders cheered.
A Dominion officer barked orders and the next wave pressed on, shields raised. Jaxen, wielding a disruptor lance, shouted, "Now, Garrick!"
Garrick, sweat pouring down his face, slammed his hammer into a Vein-charged mine. The explosion sent shrapnel and blue fire through the enemy ranks. The Marshwalkers whooped, but Garrick staggered, clutching his side.
Kael rushed to him. "You're hit."
Garrick grunted, blood seeping through his shirt. "Just a scratch. I've had worse from a forge accident."
Mira appeared, her hands already glowing. "Hold still, you stubborn ox."
Garrick tried to joke, "Don't tell me you're out of bandages already."
Mira pressed a cloth to his wound, her jaw set. "I could stitch you up with wire if I have to. Just don't die on me."
He managed a weak grin. "Wouldn't dream of it."
Behind them, the Dominion regrouped. Nalah saw a young Marshwalker, barely more than a boy, fall to a Vein bolt. She dragged him back, hands shaking. "Stay with me, Arin, stay with me—"
But his eyes were already glassy. Sava knelt beside her, tears streaking her cheeks. "We can't save them all."
Nalah's voice broke. "We have to try."
Kael placed a hand on her shoulder. "We fight for every one of them. Every inch."
---
The defenders fell back to the market square, where Mira and the healers worked in a makeshift triage. The square was chaos—cries of pain, the clang of metal, the acrid stench of Vein discharge.
Selene burst in, hair wild, harmonizer clutched to her chest. "We've got power, but only for a few minutes. Lysara's holding the grid together with spit and hope."
Mira wiped sweat from her brow. "That's all we need. Just a little more time."
A wounded Emberhand gripped Mira's sleeve. "Is it true? Did the Skyfarers take down the stormcaster?"
Mira nodded, forcing a smile. "They did. We're still in this."
Selene knelt beside her, voice trembling. "I thought I'd lost you in the last blast."
Mira squeezed her hand. "You'll have to try harder than that."
A sudden boom shook the square. Garrick and Jaxen had triggered another trap, sending a Dominion squad fleeing. The defenders cheered, but Mira saw the cost—two more wounded, one not moving.
She pressed her palm to the girl's chest, willing the Vein to heal. "Come on, breathe—breathe—"
The girl gasped, eyes fluttering open. Mira sagged in relief, but her hands shook with exhaustion.
Selene caught her. "You can't save everyone."
Mira's eyes filled with tears. "But I can try."
---
Nirael's voice crackled through the comms. "Skyfarers, on me! Target the stormcaster's aft!"
Jessa, her wingmate, replied, "We're with you, captain!"
They dove, firepots trailing smoke. A direct hit—Dominion shields flickered, then failed. The Skyfarers whooped, but a Dominion bolt struck Jessa's ship. It spiraled, flame licking the hull.
"Jessa!" Nirael screamed.
"I'm bailing!" Jessa's voice was tight with fear but steady. "See you on the ground, captain!"
Nirael watched the parachute bloom, relief and grief warring in her chest. "All ships, regroup. We're not done yet."
---
Below, Selene, Lysara, and Whisper worked in the flickering Vein-light.
Selene's hands shook as she twisted wires. "If this doesn't hold, the clinics go dark."
Lysara's voice was a lifeline. "You've got this, Selene. I trust you."
Whisper's chant rose, the Vein's current swirling. "The city remembers. The Vein remembers."
The harmonizer pulsed, and for a moment, light flickered through the tunnels. Selene gasped, tears in her eyes. "It's working. It's working!"
Lysara grinned. "You did it. Now let's get out of here before the Dominion finds us."
They hurried toward the surface, the sound of distant explosions echoing above.
---
Kael stood at the barricade, the relic glowing at his chest. Dominion soldiers advanced, relentless. He raised a Vein shield, deflecting a hail of bolts.
Nalah, beside him, fired her last disruptor. "I'm out!"
Kael handed her his spare. "We hold this line."
Garrick, limping but unbowed, roared, "Come on, you bastards! Liraine isn't yours yet!"
A Dominion officer fell, and the enemy wavered. For a heartbeat, the defenders surged forward, pushing them back.
But a new squad advanced, Vein hounds at their heels. The beasts snarled, leaping the barricade. Sava screamed as one lunged for her, but Jaxen tackled it, blade flashing.
"Not today!" Jaxen spat, driving the blade home.
The hound fell, but another took its place. The square was chaos—shouts, screams, the crackle of Vein energy.
Mira dragged a wounded boy to cover, blood soaking her hands. "Stay with me, stay with me—"
He coughed, eyes wide. "Did we win?"
She smiled, voice trembling. "We're still fighting. That's what matters."
---
The battle's fury faded into a grim, aching stillness. The square, once a cacophony of shouts and Vein fire, was now a field of the wounded and the fallen. Smoke drifted in slow eddies, catching the pale sunlight that filtered through shattered rooftops. The bells of Liraine rang on, but their notes were heavy, echoing the sorrow that pressed down on every survivor.
Kael stood amid the wreckage, blood and grime streaking his face. His hands trembled—not from fear, but from the weight of what he saw. Around him, defenders tended to the wounded, dragging comrades from the rubble, whispering names that would soon be added to the city's growing roll of the dead.
He knelt beside Sava, the Marshwalker scout who had fought so bravely all morning. Her chest rose and fell in shallow, ragged breaths, a Vein burn searing her side. Nalah was already there, pressing a blood-soaked cloth to the wound, her face streaked with tears and mud.
"Sava, stay with me," Nalah pleaded, her voice breaking. "You promised you'd see the river again, remember?"
Sava's lips curled in a faint smile. "I… I still want to. The marshes… the lilies…"
Kael pressed his hand over Nalah's, lending what little Vein energy he could spare. "Hold on, Sava. We're not done yet."
But Sava's gaze was distant, her eyes fixed on something only she could see. "Tell my brother… tell him to run, if you can."
Nalah choked on a sob as Sava's breathing slowed, then stopped. For a long moment, Nalah just sat there, rocking gently, as if she could will her friend back to life.
Kael bowed his head, grief a cold stone in his chest. "I'm sorry, Nalah."
Nalah wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, her voice raw. "She was just a child, Kael. Just a child."
Nearby, Garrick limped through the aftermath, searching for survivors. He found Jaxen slumped against a toppled barricade, clutching his side. Blood seeped through his fingers.
"Jaxen, you stubborn fool," Garrick muttered, kneeling beside him. "Let me see."
Jaxen tried to laugh, but it came out as a cough. "I told you I'd eat my boots before they took the square."
Garrick's hands shook as he tore a strip from his own shirt to bind the wound. "You're not dying on me, you hear? Not after all this."
Jaxen's eyes fluttered. "If I do, make sure my daughter gets my tools. She always wanted to build, not fight."
Garrick swallowed hard. "You'll tell her yourself. Stay with me, Jaxen."
But Jaxen's grip loosened, his gaze losing focus. Garrick pressed his forehead to his friend's, tears streaking his soot-stained face. "Not you too. Not you."
Across the square, Mira moved from body to body, her hands glowing with fading Vein light. She found a young Emberhand, the same boy she'd comforted the night before. His chest barely moved.
"Come on, Rian," she whispered, pressing her palms to his wound. "Stay with me. Please—"
The Vein answered weakly, but the boy's eyes drifted closed. Mira's tears fell onto his cheek as his breathing stopped.
Selene found her there, kneeling in the dust. "Mira, you did everything you could."
Mira shook her head, voice hoarse. "It's never enough. I can't save them all."
Selene knelt beside her, wrapping her arms around the healer. "No one could. But you saved so many."
Mira sobbed quietly, her exhaustion and grief finally breaking through her composure. "I keep telling them it will be all right. But sometimes I don't believe it myself."
Selene held her tighter. "We need your hope, Mira. Even if it's just for a moment."
Elsewhere, Nirael landed her battered windship near the square. She staggered from the cockpit, searching the faces of her crew. Jessa, her wingmate, limped over, a makeshift bandage around her arm.
"We lost two ships," Jessa said, voice hollow. "I saw them go down. I tried to—"
Nirael pulled her into a fierce embrace. "You did all you could. We all did."
Jessa's voice broke. "Tovan would have known what to do."
Nirael closed her eyes, letting the pain wash over her. "Tovan would have told us to keep flying. So we will."
Whisper moved through the ruins, her masked face unreadable. She paused beside a collapsed wall, where a Veinweaver apprentice lay motionless. Whisper knelt, tracing a sign of blessing on the girl's brow.
"May the current carry you home," she whispered, her voice trembling for the first time.
Lysara found Kael as dusk fell, her face drawn and pale. "We lost the north quarter. Too many gone. I don't know if we can hold another day."
Kael looked at her, his own grief mirrored in her eyes. "We have to. For them. For all of them."
Lysara nodded, but her shoulders sagged. "I'll reinforce the barricades. It's all I can do."
Kael watched her go, feeling the weight of every life lost pressing down on him. He looked around the square—at the wounded, the grieving, the dead. Each loss was a story unfinished, a promise broken, a future stolen.
He knelt beside the fallen, whispering their names, committing them to memory. He promised himself he would remember every face, every sacrifice.
As night fell, the survivors gathered in the center of the square, drawn together by shared pain and stubborn hope. They lit lanterns for the dead, their flickering light a fragile defiance against the darkness.
Kael spoke, his voice steady but thick with emotion. "We mourn our friends tonight. We honor them by fighting on. Tomorrow, we stand for them—as they stood for us."
The defenders bowed their heads, the city's bells tolling in mournful harmony. For a moment, grief united them more strongly than any victory.
And as the night deepened, Liraine's battered heart kept beating—each pulse a tribute to those who had fallen, and a promise that their sacrifice would not be forgotten.
---