So, the day has finally come…

"But I failed… again…," she murmured.

As Sophia knelt beside the fallen bodies of Adeline and Emrys, a hand gently touched her shoulder. Startled, she looked up to see Lady Severa standing there, her own face etched with profound sadness.

"All of this… it will never end," Lady Severa said softly, her voice heavy with sorrow. "There's no other way out…"

Sophia's gaze met Severa's, her eyes filled with despair. The weight of the loss and the enormity of the devastation seemed to close in around her, suffocating her hope.

"The healer keep lay in ruins, and the lives of so many had been cruelly extinguished. The brutal attack had not only claimed lives but had also shattered any sense of safety or normalcy, Mother!"

Severa's words resonated with a chilling truth that Sophia could not deny. The cycle of violence and suffering seemed unbreakable, and the path forward was obscured by the shadows of grief and loss.