Emra's hands and arms were caked in dirt as she kneeled on the weather-worn rocks. She had already been searching for most of the afternoon, with no luck. A growing pile of jagged rocks, pebbles, and sparkling bits of glass lay to her right within arm's reach where she had discarded them. Her skinned knees and knuckles had left streaks of blood on the surrounding rocks.
Emra sat up to take a break and relieve the nagging ache in her back. She touched her dirty cheeks, where her tears had long since dried and left trails down her face. Even now, hours after Kozeb had left, she could still hear the sound of shattering glass that took her heart along with it.
The last Window, now in pieces. A lump formed in her throat just thinking about it, so she bent over and resumed her search. Her aching fingers distracted her from her aching heart as she dug through the dirt and rocks, her heart leaping into her throat at every glimmer.
If only she had come here sooner. If only she had taken the shortcut through the treacherous Dragon's Jaws instead of taking the safer route through Greton's Pass. Perhaps she could have made it in time to save the Window. But she hadn't, and now the image of Kozeb placing his black-gloved hand on the glass, humming the deep-throated chant to pierce through the spell and break the Window, would haunt her forever.
A glint in the corner of her eye caught her attention and she froze. Could it be? After so many false alarms she almost didn't dare hope. But hope is a funny thing, springing up and taking root in the heart as tenaciously as a weed. Emra crawled over to the spot half a stone's throw away from where she had been searching. There, wedged between two rocks, was a shard of glass as long as her open palm.
Her heart gave an excited flutter as she eased the glass out from the space between the rocks. The shard was coated in a layer of dust, enough that she couldn't tell at first glance whether there was any magic left in it. With trembling hands she wiped the dust off the glass and held it up to get a good look.
Instead of giving her a clouded view of the rocks and dirt in front of her, the shard of glass offered a glimpse into another world. Bright blue sea and clear skies contrasted sharply from the deep browns and greens of her surroundings. A sailboat floated just beneath the horizon, and an albatross rode the currents in the sky.
Relief washed over her like the waves on the sea she could see through the glass. Bringing the Window shard to her lips, Emra let out a shaky sigh. Her cheeks felt wet, and she wiped tears away with her dirty sleeve.
"Hang in there, my love," she whispered, her lips still up against the shard of glass. "I'm coming."
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