Every night for the past month since she escaped from the mountain compound, Alvia awoke to night terrors.
She dreamed of dragon teeth, growling, raspy voices.
“You can’t just leave.”
“We took you from the cradle. You belong to us.”
And then a deeper voice that made her body break into a cold sweat.
“After all I’ve done for you, girl, you chase freedom?”
Her body shook every time as she replied. “My elven ancestors before me—”
“Damn your ancestors! If you neglect your duty, you’ll join them. We’ll all join them when the Great Darkness washes over this land and shackles chains of fire on us all.”
“Why should I spend my entire life in a monastery, practicing for some day that will never come?” she asked.
Sirens underscored her dreams, the clarion call that they heard in drills on th
