Grey dura 7

"Karin!" I shouted, time seeming to stop as I stared wide-eyed up at my wife. Her hair was wet and she was wrapped only in a sheer gown that clung to her body. She must have been in the bath, I realized distantly, my mind rushing to process information while my body remained frozen in place.

She should have run, escaped out one of the back entrances or down into the dungeon to hide, but instead she had come running to defend our blood's home. And unlike me, she hadn't frozen. Her hands came up and I sensed the swell of mana from her as wind began to dance between them.

Damn it, woman, you need to—

The wind spell blew through the room like a hurricane, tearing portraits and tapestries from the walls and upending furniture. White cords of wind condensed around the ascender to form an ensnaring web, trapping him. I wished again that she would flee, but Karin tightened the web, clamping down on Grey and pummeling him from several dozen different directions with her powerful emblem.

I'd seen mages pulled apart by this spell as the gusts ripped and tore at them from every direction. My wife preferred to suppress her power in public, but she had never been shy about getting her hands dirty if it meant assuring the future of our blood. I would have felt a swell of pride in her spellwork, had Grey not simply stood there, the emblem-level Wind Web spell doing nothing more than mussing his hair…

"No, Karin you—"

My words caught in my throat as I turned and met my wife's eyes, already glossy with death. Behind her was Grey, his violet blade sheathed in Karin's blood.

I opened my mouth, trying to say something—say anything—but I could only stare like a fish gulping for air as the light left my wife's eyes.

Then the spell was broken as her lifeless body tumbled forward, rolling grotesquely down the stairs to land at my feet.