Author's POVShe was moving before she knew she'd decided to move, running towards him. Toward the fire that was too bright to look at directly. Towards heat that caused the air to shimmer and her skin to prickle with warning.Her brain was screaming to her to stop. To stay back. To not do something monumentally stupid, such as running into the convergence point.But her heart - her stupid, breaking heart - didn't even care about logic."Charis, no!" That was Zayan. Screaming from the line of defence. "Stay back!"She didn't stay back."Charis!" Another voice. Kaladin maybe. She couldn't tell through the roaring in her ears.Wind pushed at her. The air element is trying to push her backwards. Trying to save her from her own foolhardy decision.She pushed through it. Pushed through the invisible wall, the air resistance. Pushed through this heat and the corruption and the warning screaming in every nerve.Someone was calling her name. Multiple someones. The whole line of defense, proba

Author's POVTiago headed toward Wilder as inevitably as death itself.Slow steps. Unhurried. Black magic curling around his hands like living smoke. He had all the time in the world, and he knew it.Wilder was trying to stand. Rune could see him struggling—hands pressed against stone, arms trembling with effort, shadows flickering weakly around him. His body did not want to cooperate. Wouldn't obey. The impact of Tiago's attack had done more damage than any of them had realized.He couldn't get up.And Tiago was aware of that as well."You were supposed to be the vessel," Tiago said. Almost conversational. As though he was talking about the weather rather than covertly plotting to murder a seventeen-year-old boy. "The prophesied one. Shadow's bloodline. The one who could contain Grimfall without being consumed."He had paused a few feet short of where Wilder was kneeling. The dark magic intensified. Became almost solid."But you chose wrong," Tiago continued. "Choose light over darkn

Author's POVWilder's defiance had done more than rejuvenate the teenagers. It had enraged the ancient evil that was using Tiago as a conduit.Grimfall had been so close. The convergence is nearly complete. The barriers are almost broken. Victory inevitable.And then a seventeen-year-old with a shadow bloodline had risen and said no.Had refused to accept the end.Had opted to continue fighting even when it made no sense.The rage that swept Tiago was not his only one. Was Grimfall's fury channeled through a willing host? Ancient. Vast. Overwhelming.And it was manifested in violence.Tiago attacked.No warning. No preamble. No wasted words.Just—power.Dark magic came out of his hands. Multiple strikes simultaneously. Focusing on Zayan constructs, the wind barriers of Kaladin, teenagers themselves.Walls of the earth were brought down. Zenna's purification helped them last longer than they should have, but they still fell. Stone turning to dust. Barriers collapsing.Kaladin's air pre

Author's POVAstoria witnessed it occurring in the ballroom. Beheld the ritual chamber filled with black magic. Saw her crew being hurled back by fresh thrall attacks. And saw all falling at once.Her blue flames were brighter. Hotter. Driven by sorrow and anger and total unwillingness to leave this the end."HOLD!" she screamed. "HOLD THE LINE!"Her team responded. Despite injuries. Despite exhaustion. They were aware of the fact that they were likely to die.They held.Gave it everything and gave it everything. Killed thralls without mercy. Constructed a corpse wall between the rotting forces and the ritual chamber.Because teenagers had refused to give up. So soldiers may well do the same.The struggle was a hot-blooded affair. Bloodshed and anarchy and hopeless finales. Blood on stone. Fire in darkness. Screaming and dying and fighting anyway.And in the very midst of it--In the ritual room where Tiago was towering over shattered teenagers and dropping scroll pages and a dying me

Author's POVThree words. Carrying absolute faith that Rune would understand. Would believe. Would not doubt even when every instinct screamed danger.Rune's own doubt was shattered. He responded immediately. Both telepathically and in a whispered apology."I'm sorry. I'm sorry for doubting even for a second. I trust you. I'm just worried.""I know. Please focus on your part. Build the prison. Don't look back. Don't watch what I'm doing. Just trust."So Rune did. Focused on his light constructs. On building the geometric cage that would trap Grimfall.On creating the prison that Wilder's darkness would deliver the prisoner to.And he never looked back. Never checked on Wilder. Never let doubt resurface.Just trusted. Built. Hoped that faith would be enough.Wilder's shadows called to Grimfall.Not with words. Not with conscious thought. But with--resonance. Affinity. The kind of recognition that came when darkness met darkness and found kinship.His shadows were pure. Uncorrupted. But