The Crown’s soldiers entered Lowmere beneath a banner of white and gold.
They did not attack the houses.
They marched toward the tower, moving as if the village were empty.
The first ranks carried shields.
Behind them came three teams of wardwrights hauling iron stakes on low carts.
Each stake was painted with the same sunburst as the tokens.
The soldiers were not bringing a battering ram.
They were bringing anchors for the engine’s spell.
Arden led the villagers through the north passage in orderly groups.
Tamsin carried her son; Nella carried a lantern and the bakery’s account book.
The old farmer refused to leave without his daughters’ names carved on a wooden board.
Mara shielded the passage from the tower’s golden threads while Elias held the main archway against the advancing soldiers.
“They’re not trying to capture us,” Sera shouted.
“They’re trying to anchor the engine!”
Caedran’s soldiers planted metal stakes around the square.
Each one lit when it struck the earth.
The ward web tightened between them, turning every person still outside the houses into a bright point in a net.
Lio ran back from the passage.
“The last group is through!”
“Then get back in there,” Elias said.
“I know the tower’s lower door. I can open it from the outside.”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“It’s my village.”
Mara gave her a small nod.
“Stay behind the stone. We’ll keep the light off you.”
Caedran rode at their head.
He raised one gloved hand, and the ward brightened.
Every villager in the square cried out.
The Dawn Engine drew harder.
Mara felt memories slipping through the bond—not her own, but stolen ones carried along the magic.
Nella’s first day in the bakery.
Tamsin teaching her boy to walk.
The old farmer singing to his daughters.
The engine was full of lives.
Elias strained against the web.
“I can’t hold it.”
Mara dug her hands into the pattern.
“You don’t have to. Give me the pressure.”
He released the force into their bond.
The power hit Mara like a wave.
It would have broken her if she had been alone.
Elias felt it too.
Mara found the place where the golden threads converged and twisted them away from the villagers.
The tower cracked.
Caedran looked up.
“There they are.”
The soldiers charged.
Elias met them halfway.
He moved with impossible speed, striking the ground and sending a rolling shock through the square.
Soldiers fell, weapons clattering.
He never hit anyone hard enough to kill them.
He had to tell himself that with every blow.
Mara lifted her arms.
The air filled with violet rings.
Every sun-marked weapon in the square vibrated.
Swords and spears tore from the soldiers’ hands and spun above the rooftops.
Caedran dismounted.
His armor glowed from within.
“You don’t understand what you’re interfering with.”
“We understand that you’re hurting people,” Mara said.
“I am keeping them alive.”
“By taking their memories?”
“By taking what they can spare.”
The old farmer screamed again.
His daughter’s names were going.
Mara felt her fury sharpen.
The magic around her flared.
One gesture could turn Caedran’s armor inside out.
One word could crush the tower into the earth.
Elias’s voice came through the bond.
“Mara. Look at me.”
She did.
He was bleeding at the temple.
The blood ran down his cheek, but she felt the cut as if it were hers.
His eyes held the same rage she felt—and something gentler beneath it.
A reminder.
They were here to help the people, not punish the world for being cruel.
Mara lowered her hands a fraction.
Caedran seized the moment.
He thrust his palm forward.
A lance of gold light struck Elias in the chest.
Mara felt the impact.
The bond screamed.
Every pane of glass in Lowmere shattered.
The force surged through Mara.
She stood trembling, a storm of gold and violet spiraling around her.
The Crown’s soldiers dropped to their knees.
Caedran’s armor began to buckle.
“Mara!” Elias’s voice came faintly.
“Don’t let him choose what you become.”
She closed her eyes.
The power begged for release.
She could end the battle in a breath.
She could return every wound and more.
Instead, she opened the bond.
The force went through her and back to Elias, then out in a wave that lifted the soldiers off their feet and laid them gently across the square.
Their weapons fell harmlessly into the dirt.
Caedran remained standing, protected by his armor.
Mara’s magic wrapped around him like a net.
“You could have killed me,” he said.
“I know.”
Elias pushed himself from the rubble.
Sera ran to him, but he waved her off.
He was hurt, though the injury was already closing.
“The tower is still drawing power,” he said.
Mara turned.
The cracked stone glowed brighter.
The engine had reached a new threshold.
Above the village, the barrier became transparent.
The storm pressed against it like an enormous hand.
The top of the tower split.
From its heart emerged a column of gold light reaching toward the capital.
“The engine is calling the Crown,” Sera shouted.
“If it finishes the pulse, it will drain everyone here.”
Mara reached for the tower and felt the villagers’ power trapped inside it.
“We have to get them out.”
“There’s nowhere to go,” Arden called from the north passage.
“The storm has covered the valley.”
Elias looked at his sister.
“Then we hold the wall.”
“Together.”
They ran for the tower.