The chamber fell into a frozen hush, time itself seeming to stutter as the arrows hung mid-flight black-fletched death aimed straight for Lumina's heart.
Every breath in the room was caught. Ashen's shout still echoed off the stone walls, raw and desperate.
"Lumina look out!" he shouted from the bottom of his heart.
Then Lumina moved but did not flinch or even scream.
Instead, her slender, adorned with silver rings that caught the torchlight dropped slowly to her sides.
The blindfold across her eyes did nothing to hide the sudden, terrible calm that settled over her features.
A low, almost inaudible hum rose from her throat, vibrating through the air like the first note of a dirge.
The arrows reversed at once and in one heartbeat they flew forward, the next minutes they spun violently in place, tips gleaming as though caught in an invisible whirlpool.
Lumina tilted her head slightly, the motion so small it might have been a sigh the arrows obeyed.
They turned.
