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Kaleya paced restlessly through the gardens. Her normally serene expression twisted with worry. The messenger was late. The beauty of the rare and fragrant flowers filling her surroundings was lost on her. At the sound of approaching footsteps, she jumped as if struck. A lanky boy in dusty traveling leathers hurried toward her from the direction of the temple. He stopped before her, bowing low. He pulled a rolled parchment from the pack at his waist and wordlessly offered it to her. Her fingers trembling slightly, she took the message and waved the boy away. Bowing low once more, he hastily retreating the way he had come. Her mind filled with an unexpected fear as she looked at the message in her hands. A peal of thunder sounded from nearby, momentarily distracting her thoughts. Pulling herself back to the present, she untied the string binding the scroll. Unable to wait a moment longer, she unrolled the parchment. Her eyes scanned hungrily over the words, searching for the news she craved. Her gazed stopped as the meaning of what she had just read sunk into her mind. Kaleya’s eyes brimmed with tears as she held the letter in her hands. Her smoke colored eyes skimmed the rest of the words, but she took none of them in. A fierce wind whipped through her crimson hair, tearing at her gossamer white gown, and ripping the paper from her grasp. She stood, still as a stone, the loss of the paper going unnoticed. The first drops of rain from what promised to be a vicious storm fell upon her alabaster skin. A fork of lighting snaked through the sky, striking a tree just a few feet away. Kaleya continued to stare out into the night, her mind still circling around the words from the message. A storm at sea, possible the same one that raged around her now, had changed everything. A figure dressed in loose fitting green robes detached itself from the darkness and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “My lady, you’ll catch your death of cold or worse outside on a night like this. Come inside and sit by the fire.” Kaleya turned towards the speaker. Her unfocused eyes stared directly through the newcomer. She blinked rapidly, trying to push through the fog blanketing her mind. Opening her mouth, as if to speak, her features contorted with agony as reality crowded down upon her soul. A high, keening wail pierced the night as Kaleya’s form collapsed under the weight of her grief.