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"Hey, we're all friends here, right?" you said, aware you sounded more desperate than you'd intended. "We're all friends. Just let my arms go, friend—"

"Are you drunk?" hissed the guard on the left.

"Keep your voice down," muttered the one on the right.

Well, that didn't work.

Next

The guards dragged you through the palace and down to the dungeon. While the older guard pushed you toward your cell, the younger one hung back to murmur something to the woman standing watch by the dungeon door. You suspected it was something about your behavior earlier, particularly when she started laughing uproariously. That story wasn't going to do your reputation any favors, assuming your reputation mattered anymore.

The guard still at your elbow thrust you roughly into your cell and turned to the dungeon door without looking back. "Wait, wait, wait," you said. "You haven't even told me why I'm here!"

"Don't pretend you don't know," she snapped.

"I'm not pretending," you insisted.

The guard rolled her eyes. "Don't you have more important things to worry about right now, what with what's happened to the sky?"

She departed before you could ask what she meant, but your cell did have a window.

Next

Slowly, you crossed over to the wall and climbed onto the cot below your small, barred window. What in the world had happened? Maybe you could find out from Letha in the morning. She lived at the palace now, after all. You sighed and lifted your head to look outside.

At first, you saw nothing but an ordinary sky. Then you raised your gaze higher, and stared, and kept staring. You still can't keep from staring now, even with the guard and her questions hovering beyond the bars of your cell.

The full moon over Archa is blood-red. The first omen in your prophecy has come true again.

And this time, you had nothing to do with it.

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