She jolts awake, and reaches as her brother opens his mind to her, and she sees it - 

:- Mother: 

They can't find her mind. 

When they reach Snowstar's ekele, there's nothing and no one there. 

Moondance, Healing-Adept of k'Treva and formerly lifebonded to Starwind, Speaker for the Vale, gathers his people. What's left of them. 

They do a headcount. They're missing almost exactly half. 

(Everything hurts. It doesn't matter, not yet, and he's not intending to have to bear it for long.) 

:Who would take responsibility for k'Treva: he asks the huddled group, because for SOME REASON he seems to be the only one capable of thinking that far ahead, despite the yawning sucking screaming void where his lifebonded used to be. 

Silence. 

:Brightstar?: 

His son takes a deep breath. 

:No. I am going to Valdemar, for my father: 

:And so am I: 

:Fine: 

Moondance looks around. Then closes his eyes and his Thoughtsensing, and points at random. 

When he opens his eyes– 

:Riverstorm. You are the leader now: 

His mindvoice brooks no argument, and there isn't one. 

After a long silence, 

:Brightstar, Featherfire. Are you going now: 

In private Mindspeech,

:- Come with us, dada?: 

:No: 

Brightstar knows what Moondance is going to do. He's been trying not to think about it. 

It hurts too much to say goodbye. 

:- I have not been there before - can you, Gate...?: 

Gate. 

:Dada, I–: 

There aren't any words for this, are there. 

Featherfire crosses the Gate. 

Brightstar lingers a moment longer on the threshold. 

:We will find out who did this: he promises, his mindvoice like brittle glass. :And we will make them pay: 

He steps across the Gate into Haven. 

Moondance unweaves the Gate, and walks away from the central courtyard without a word, and as soon as he reaches a quiet-ish courtyard he sits down - 

- looks at the stars - 

He remembers a conversation, a year-and-some ago, in Haven. Speaking to his Wingbrother, of a man who named himself Leareth - a word that means only darkness now, but once, in the language of his ancestors, it also meant the night sky. 

Full of stars.

I don’t know if we should be fighting him, Vanyel says. 

It would be simpler if we knew him to be a monster, Moondance remembers answering. And yet, though we live in a world of greys, not all paths are equal, and sometimes a choice can be clear. I am quite certain that your Leareth must be stopped.

And then, later:

It is the greatest hubris, to think that one knows better than the gods. 

And Vanyel's answer, piercing, unforgettable. Is it? Because I’ve never exactly felt the gods were on my side. 

The stars blur and fragment. 

Moondance closes his eyes against the pointless tears, and uses Healing to stop his own heart. 

Northeast of Valdemar, a magical barrier that has stood for millennia vanishes into nothing. 

South, a woman wakes in panic and throws herself out of her bed and sprints down the hall to the nursery.

And then crumples to the floor in front of an empty crib, sobbing. 

:You felt it too: 

The mindvoice is almost unrecognizable - barely holding together in words, ragged and mostly formed of pain and an awful negative space where something used to be.

Queen Karis is not really processing the question. 

That's understandable. Sola knows, though. What the sudden lack of a foundation under her has to mean. 

She doesn't understand.

After a long time, :Karis. Karis. Focus. We need to send a message to Haven: 

:I cannot -:

Except, she can. Karis fled Karse on foot, spent months in the wilderness, knowing her entire family was dead. She knows what she's capable of, now. 

:I will go myself. Find - someone - for the Gate: 

The meeting-room feels far too empty. 

Dara counts off her people. Keiran and Joshel, present.

Katha, present, though still trying to control her sobs. Her baby was numbered among the body count - well, the dead count. There aren't any bodies to be buried. 

Shallan, alive. Siri, alive. 

Savil, alive. Not weeping, which is impressive. She is, at this point, the only Herald-Mage left in the entire kingdom. 

Marius, dead. 

Tantras, she isn't thinking about right now. 

Keiran was pregnant up until a handful of minutes ago. 

She isn't pregnant anymore. 

It would make a lot of sense for her to have emotions about this, but her emotions seem to be on vacation right now. 

They'd better get her a Healer at some point but right now the Healers are dealing with their own casualties. If that's the right word. 

"Word from the west," Joshel says, heavily into the silence. "Happened in Lineas-Baires too. Half of - everyone in the city. ...Tashir's gone."