17.5 // Zero // Rally & Reunion

Act I

Templeton and Rayna stand atop the city wall, gazing north at the Onyx Order army spilling across the horizon like a dark tide. They trade quiet words about the coming battle and the value of well-kept armor. When the conversation breaks, Templeton contemplates how and why the unicorn statue, a homage to Lurue, had gone missing. He questions the rumors that the Fey goddess abandoned her people.

A green flare cuts through the sky, breaking the calm. It’s a signal to begin the Smurking, the plan to smoke out Onyx Order units hidden throughout the city.

All across Fey Ember, chaos ignites. Skirmishes breaking out in the streets. Air turning brown and sour. Explosions thunder from the east, likely the raid on The Kept. Rayna nudges Templeton to share some words with the defense assembled below him despite his instincts to not lead. But as fear spreads through the defenders, he steps forward. Against his own hesitation, he delivers a rallying speech that burns through the dread. The soldiers roar in response, their courage rekindled for just a moment.

Act II

A crack in sky appears as the echo of Templeton’s words fade. The Mythal splits open from the south, seeping black and crimson into the air. The rupture becomes the signal: the Onyx Order surges to attack from the north.

As panic takes over the defense, Templeton calls out to Lurue in prayer. The defenders still themselves to hear the words, some reciting with him. The prayer ends and the fey answers. Horns blare in the distance signaling the return of the Outer Force. Swiftwind orders Templeton to ride south and meet them.

Templeton mounts Luna, the legendary axebeak, and charges through the burning streets. As he approaches the South Gate, he sees the Purple Dragon Knights fighting to hold the way. Templeton weaves through the battle, cutting down enemies where possible without delaying his race to the gate. Bursting through the South Gate, he finds the Forlorn (the shanty neighborhood of the fey lost ) eerily silent. Then he sees it: their bodies sprawled across the fields, arranged in the shape of the Onyx Order’s symbol. A ritual.

He pushes onward toward the sound of a thunder. When he reaches view of it, he sees a stampede of unicorns carrying the Outer Force home. Among them rides his father, Cecil P. Hedgepaw. The charge halts for the reunion. Seeing his son alive, Cecil's body language shows relief, but his words are awkwardly formal. Templeton is eager, finally a part of the Outer Force. He looks to Cecil as his commander not his father. It’s a brief moment, underscored by the tragic notion that — war allows no space for tenderness.

As the Outer Force repositions itself to charge, a realization dawns on Templeton. The vanished statue of Lurue was never a sign of abandonment. Fey Ember’s goddess didn’t flee. She left to retrieve the Outer Force. She returned to save her city.

#FeyEmberForever