Silvermist choked on her breath, each inhale sharp and ragged like broken glass tearing through her throat. Her body trembled violently—her limbs no longer obeyed her, her muscles burning, overdrawn and splintering beneath the weight of overused magic.
She knelt in the rubble, her knees scraping against the jagged floor as if in worship to the pain. Her left hand clawed into the ground, stabilizing her body as she leaned forward, spitting blood into the cracked stone beneath her.
Her right hand sparked with a pathetic sputter of magic—a flicker of blue light that fizzled out almost instantly like a dying firefly.
Her palms were flayed raw, lined with blisters from explosive feedback. Magic recoiled now when she summoned it, as though even her own power had turned against her.
"Just a few more... a few more and she'll break," she hissed through clenched teeth, her voice raspy, throat raw from screaming. She raised her head, eyes bloodshot, looking across the chamber.
