/-Zara-/

The drums began before dusk.

Slow. Hollow. Each one echoing through the halls as if it was a countdown to my own death.

By the time the guards came to escort me away, my hands were shaking so severely that I had to curl them in my lap just to hide it. The white robe they'd dressed me in felt like a shroud. With every step down the stone corridor, I stepped toward something I couldn't explain.

The outside air was thick with smoke and the smell of blood metal. The entire courtyard ...