An hour dragged on.
Sonder sat on a low ridge of stone just outside the shattered gate, her staff resting across her knees.
Smoke rose from the inside of the city, but it thinned, and the sound of battle was reduced to rare, distant shouts and the occasional grunt of pain.
The kobolds Sonder had confronted were contained in a cell of dirt and stone she had created, leaving a small slit as a window to the outside.
By now, the Chackara must have taken most of the city, advancing and overwhelming those left to fight, breaking resistance piece by piece.
She didn't watch. She couldn't.
Instead, her gaze kept drifting back to her hands, again and again.
Three shards lay wrapped in cloth, separated from her by a fragile barrier.
Even through the fabric, she could feel them.
There was a cold burn, like holding onto ice for too long.
She tightened the wrappings, annoyed with herself.
This was the point, she reminded herself. The only point.
She hadn't come for the city, the Chackara's victory, or the Shemmi's fall.
She certainly hadn't come to decide who deserved to live or die.
She had come for the shard.
Now she had it.
A flicker of unease crossed her thoughts as she looked toward the city.
She frowned.
If the shard is gone, she thought, then maybe the fighting will stop.
The idea settled uncomfortably in her chest; something she thought came to her far too easily. A sort of apathy to what happened.
But she comforted herself with the thought that if the shard's influence was gone; too far for it to reach the city; then maybe the suicidal frenzy of the kobolds would fade. They would surrender and live.
That was her hope. But how could she be sure that it would happen as she imagined?
What if the change was permanent for creatures like the kobolds?
Her thoughts once again returned to the notion that they may have been lesser creatures.
That gave her pause, and she tried to chase them away.
But she had decided that whatever happened next wasn't hers to see.
Rising to her feet, she put the shards away after taking one last look at them.
Wrapping the cloth around them felt like casting a seal.
For a brief moment, she wondered what would happen if she stayed.
If her presence could save more people from harm or put more in its way.
Then she turned away.
If the city survived and the kobolds regained their senses, how many would be hurt or dead no longer mattered.
It wasn't her concern.
She could only hope.