The night before the storm broke, the Sanctuary was a place of tense anticipation. The winds, once gentle and calm, now howled through the trees, a sign of the coming change. Lanterns flickered across the grounds, casting long shadows on the stone paths. The air was thick with the weight of decisions that had already been made, yet with the fear that uncertainty always brings.
Kael stood on the balcony of the main hall, looking out over the Sanctuary. His eyes scanned the horizon, where distant lightning flashed in the clouds. He could feel the storm in his bones, both the one in the sky and the one within. The battle was coming—this time, not just for land or for survival, but for the future of everything they had built. A new era or the return of the old ways.