13

When we reach the harbor of the Order, we're greeted by utter chaos. Normally the halls of the Order have a certain solemn silence to them, and even a troublemaker only dares make a bit of chaos for them.

Today...is different.

It's just past sunset by the time the boat ride is complete, so it's evident we must have been going slower coming home than going out. For whatever reason that might be.

The skies are lit a fiery orange that burns brighter on the horizon.

It looks like it should be a beautiful sunset, but the air is thick with smoke and eerily silent. And the sun has already set.

I can see a massive plume of black smoke rising from the Order, filling the air with acrid ash.

There is no one present at the harbor, and no one meets us when we disembark.

Thomson turns to face the students, his eyes darkened by a pensive look of concern and determination. "Get back to your homes, everyone. Immediately."

He doesn't wait for the students to acknowledge the command. Instead he runs up the path into the city proper without so much as a backwards glance at me.

The students scatter like ants.

I hurry through the streets of the town, ignoring the panicked, screaming people, running towards my home.

The Order is on fire.

Black flames billow upwards from the building, engulfing it in a sea of cursed, burning nothingness.

The stone walls crumble before the onslaught of the destructive fire, sending huge chunks of rock and debris falling to the earth below, smashing into the earth with catastrophic force.

Through it all, a strange silence prevails.

It's not truly silent. The fire rages, the building collapses, and my fellow students scream in panic.

And yet...

It's as if there are no sounds to accompany the destruction.

Like no one except for us is making any sound at all.

Everywhere, there is smoke. Everywhere, there are people fleeing from the scene, shouting and screaming for help, scrambling to get away from the madness that envelopes their safe haven.

I stare at the building with a feeling of numb horror.

I can't believe that something like this could have happened.

I'm still in a state of shock from the revelation of my own power and the attack by the Gloom Dwellers on our field trip. Now, on top of all that, this new calamity seems like a nightmare come true.

The Order was supposed to be indestructible, a bastion of humanity, the one place that would always remain safe and protected against the evils of the world.

The entire structure that makes up the center of our lives and our civilization has collapsed, crumbled away to nothing as if it was never there to begin with.

It's overwhelming, and I feel as though I'm being sucked down into a dark void where I will never see light again.

With trembling legs, I push forward, making my way toward the area where my room is, deep in the bowels of the crumbling building.

The fire isn't enough to deter me - it's in the upper levels, and dangerous as that still is...

Well.

I guess I'm not thinking clearly enough to let that stop me.

There's much more important things to worry about.

If the Order is destroyed, there is nothing left for us to defend ourselves against the Gloom Dwellers' attacks.

No support system to provide us with food or shelter, and no trained guardians to protect us from harm.

If the Gloom Dwellers who did this return, we will all be doomed.

I move with single-minded focus, focusing on putting one foot in front of the other and reaching my goal as quickly as I can.

I've been too distracted with everything else, and the realization of what happened sinks in, chilling me to the core.

Somehow, after all this time, the Order fell in what appears to be one day. The discarded Gloom hanging around as testaments to the desperate battles fought here are still fresh enough - and the fire is still raging strong enough - that I doubt the fighting ended all that long ago.

The only reason any of us are alive. Classmaster Thomson included, is because we weren't present for it.

The Gloom Dweller attack on us was...

Were we...

The last?

No - no. It couldn't be.

Those Gloom Dwellers were expecting me to call them reinforcements to attack. Therefore they couldn't have known this was happening.

Right?

There's ...

no way...

That they might have anticipated someone like Thomson might have been in hiding and wanted to be rid of every single Order member in existence all in twenty-four hours flat.

Right?

My heart thumps wildly in my chest, beating against the walls of its cage in a desperate attempt to escape its prison. I feel sick.

My lungs constrict and I gasp for breath, drawing in short, ragged breaths that do little to alleviate the stress I feel.

My pace quickens until I'm sprinting, and I barely manage to avoid tripping over collapsed walls, broken furniture, and fallen bodies of people who were once my...associates.

There is no one guarding the entryway to the lower floor when I arrive at it. The door is hanging wide open, off its hinges hinges, torn from its moorings.

The small lower meeting area inside is a mess. Furniture is overturned and broken glass from lamps covers the floor like ice cubes, scattered in haphazard fashion across every surface.

Blood splatters stain the white marble floors crimson red, and pools of thick crimson fluid spill across the floor. The scent of blood hangs heavy in the air, thick and metallic. Gloom bubbles as it mixes with the blood on the floor, splattered haphazard everywhere.

I walk cautiously, warily stepping around the bodies that lie crumpled on the ground. I move slowly through the area, peering into each room for signs of life or movement.

But everywhere I see, I find nothing but devastation and death.

Those who aren't truly dead have already lost their souls.

Those...are even worse to look at than the fallen.

A few small fires burn weakly beneath shattered windows and doors.

There is no one alive, no survivors remaining in sight.

No matter how many times I repeat it to myself, I still can't believe it. I still keep looking.

I still keep ending up with the same result.

As I move deeper into the building, I come upon my own door.

I pause at the threshold, my fingers clutching tightly at the wooden frame as my gaze travels over its surface. It looks untouched by the ravages of war, undamaged and pristine.

Like they knew not to bother looking inside an empty room.

I quickly step forward and unlock my door with shaky hands, pushing it open.

There's nothing inside.

No sign a Gloom Dweller even bothered to look.

There's strands of Gloom left over all over this place where battles took place, and nothing in here.

Like they knew the students, myself included, wouldn't be here.

Like they knew where we actually were.