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Night had fallen by the time the new knights were dismissed. The patrol’s return had been quiet, the veterans offering no words of comfort, no explanation beyond *you have seen them now.* The new knights dispersed into the dormitories with their armor still heavy on their shoulders and silence pressed against their throats. Emil did not sleep. He lay on his cot, staring at the ceiling beams overhead, listening to the shuffle of restless bodies around him. Some whispered faint prayers, others wept quietly into their bedding. Emil’s eyes burned, but no tears came. The void where the Shuura’s face should have been floated behind his eyelids whenever he blinked, hollow and endless. The whispers twisted in the dark, louder now than in training, louder even than when he had nearly collapsed b
- Writer
