This story in inspired by the opening to the novel "Seveneves," which reads "The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason." No explanation is ever given for why the moon exploded, just as there will be no explanation for what happened to magic. Its also my attempt at a multi-chapter and serious, non-jokey story. That being said it won't be particularly long. This isn't about why magic went away or everything that happened, just how the world reacted and one important moment in that significantly different timeline. My best guess for length is around three chapters.

Magic vanished from the world without warning and for no apparent reason two days after Ezran began his journey back to Katolis. One minute it was there, the next it ceased to be. The elves and dragons noticed immediately. Each one across Xadia felt an instant sensation of loss as their connection to their arcanum was severed. Mages in the Pentarchy took slightly more time to realized what had changed. It was only on their next attempts to use dark magic that they would discover something was wrong. Viren, on the other hand, realized instantly when the caterpillar lodged in his ear shriveled up and fell out. He was being detained in the same spot he had previously chained up Gren. Those same chains prevented him from grabbing the dead caterpillar to inspect it. He didn't need to, however, as more clarifying changes happened in the following seconds.

The guards posted to keep watch over Viren screamed when, in the next room over, the confiscated mirror shattered and a startouch elf was left lying on the floor. A sack of coins exploded and released a moonshadow elf. He was unarmed, and though the strange binding on his arm had fallen away, the damage done to it left him greatly weakened. The guards could have easily subdued Runaan had they not been in shock from whatever had just occurred. All too quickly Runaan had taken one of the guard's swords and fought his way out. If not for the rush to escape and warn Xadia of the mirror, he would have stopped to kill Viren, or better still, realize that his warning would be meaningless now. When Aaravos gained his bearings, he released Viren from his shackles and they tried to escape as well. But they were mages, and without magic they had little means to resist the guards who had been roused by Runaan's attack.

Soren realized magic was gone instantaneously as well. The spell that had healed his body wore off and he was sent tumbling to the ground. Claudia spent days trying to repeat the spell before Soren forced her stop. He had seen enough dead fawns for one lifetime. Unable to travel, they chose to remain in the village. Claudia would provide her knowledge of potions and rare ingredients to assist those injured in the dragon attack in exchange for housing. To her continued confusion, many of the rarer ingredients no longer had any effect.

Thankfully, Ezran and Corvus had already parted ways with the banthers by then. Otherwise they would have been in serious trouble as Ezran's ability to speak with them vanished. The connection between himself and Zym was gone as well, though it took time to be certain, as the connection and how it worked were still new to him. A week later they arrived at the castle to find utter chaos. Word had spread that magic no longer worked. Viren and Aaravos had been freed, though kept under constant watch, to lend their expertise on magic. Both were at a loss. Ezran was officially crowned king and thrust into handling one of the strangest catastrophes in recorded history. By then he excepted his connection with Zym was almost certainly gone, and thus his only ability to know what had become of Callum or Rayla. Even in this magic-less world, he couldn't risk alerting anyone to their task and so forced himself to wait for a sign. When they returned Zym to his mother, Ezran reasoned, it would be the only news spreading faster than the disappearance of magic. He would hear from them, or even see them, in only a matter of time. That didn't happen. Months passed, but he held out hope.

While Ezran adjusted to life as a king, the rest of the world failed to adjust to life without magic. The elves blamed the Pentarchy for what had happened. Obviously it was due to the humans' dark magic, intentional or not. The Pentarchy blamed the elves, that they must have done something to further deprive humanity of magic and accidentally effected themselves as well. Neither side fully believed either explanation. Still it was enough for both to justify an escalation of the war. Within months, armed conflicts broke out across the border. By the year's end, sunfire forces were pushing deep in human territory. The elves were confident the odds were in their favor, but they had yet to realize just how dependent on magic they had been. It wasn't just mages who were left powerless. Sunforge weapons lost their potency. Moonshadow elves could no longer turn invisible under the full moon. Even the dragons, while still giant flying reptiles with all the might that entails, were significantly weaker without their primal source derived abilities.

The combined might of the Pentarchy pushed back. Aaravos, though his knowledge of Xadia was significantly out of date, provided vital information that allowed equally massive gains on the Xadian side of the border in return for continued amnesty. He knew the elves and dragons would never forgive him, so why not back the other side? Ezran didn't trust Aaravos, nor Viren, whose freedom was arranged as a condition by Aaravos, but he needed all the advantages he could get in a war rapidly intensifying. If Zym had reached the Dragon Queen, it had made no difference, and Ezran was forced to assume to worst as to his brother and Rayla's fates. For years there was a constant back and forth push as territories were claimed and towns were razed. Massive losses piled up for each side. One would be hard pressed to find someone in any corner of the Pentarchy or Xadia who hadn't felt the effects of the war, even if just by knowing someone who had.

Six years after magic vanished, Katolis fell. As the kingdom closest to Xadia it had born the brunt of the attacks from the beginning, but when word reached Xadia that Aaravos was alive and assisting the humans, it galvanized the elven forces like nothing else. The castle fell amidst a final stand by General Amaya. Her sacrifice allowed King Ezran and some members of the royal court to escape in secret. They took shelter in nearby Duren, where Queen Aanya offered them sanctuary just as Katolis once offered them support. What remained of the army soon joined them, as did refugees fleeing from the towns left unguarded by the fall of Katolis. Among those refugees was Claudia, now a trained healer and alchemist. Soren was not with her.

For the next four years, Ezran stayed in Duren's capital, a King in Exile overseeing the remnants of Katolis and commanding the last of his forces in the war. He still didn't fully trust Viren, and Aanya really didn't trust him. Neither cared for Aaravos, who seemed to be pleased with the outcome of every battle no matter what said outcome actually was. It unsettled Ezran but he had little room to argue. Aaravos' information on Xadian culture and tactics proved vital, and the Pentarchy avenged Katolis with great gains on the other side of the Breach. The Pentarchy started calling the freshly claimed territory "New Katolis," but it was still too much of a war zone to risk setting up a proper capital. Ezran and the court remained in Duren. There was no sign of the war ending. Commoners and nobles alike would sardonically joke the war wouldn't stop until everyone on both sides was dead. The rulers feared it was true. No one could imagine anything which would be able to stop the fighting.

It was not a dark and stormy night, though one would not be remiss for thinking it was. While it was only one in the afternoon, the storm lashing Duren's castle had blackened the sky darker than even natural night did. Rain did not pour so much as it flooded, and lightning struck every minute. Hard hitting drops of rain and long echoing thunder left it impossible to hear anything that might try to enter the castle. The guards were on high alert, but would have been on higher alert if they didn't know that even Xadian forces would never risk being caught out in such a storm themselves. Aaravos sat in his chambers, a sparsely furnished room with only a bed and a writing desk. It was nothing compared to the room in his mirror, and he wasn't all that much more "free" out here than he had been while trapped inside. Despite his current state and the dismal weather, Aaravos was smiling. He stared out through the window from his bed and waited. He had been waiting like this for the past two hours, when the storm had begun. Aaravos wasn't entirely sure what he was waiting for. He just knew it would be worth it.

He thought he heard something. Scrabbling at the roof's shingles. Maybe a hook embedding itself in the stone. Aaravos leaned closer to the window. Nothing happened. While his hearing was sensitive, it wasn't foolproof. In all likelihood the sound was either in his head or something dislodged by the rain hitting against the wall on its fall down. Aaravos smirked and leaned in towards the window. Still nothing.

A four fingered hand shot up and slammed against the window with a wet thump. It tried to find purchase but the rain slick glass was offering none. The hand lost its grip and fell, only to clutch down on the windowsill now that Aaravos had pulled the window open hard enough to shatter the glass. He grasped the hand and pulled its owner inside, until they collapsed on the floor in a rapidly spreading puddle. The intruder clambered to their feet.

Aaravos did not know this person. She was a moonshadow elf, wearing a sodden hood and clutching the hilts of a pair of curved blades in her left hand. He couldn't begin to imagine why she was here, though he had several ideas. She was just as confused to find an elf. If the lighting had been better and she wasn't running on Adrenalin and nothing else, she might have realized this must be the feared and hated Aaravos. She would have reconsidered her plan and fled out the window. Luckily, she didn't realize. Instead she stared at him while passing one of the blades to her empty hand.

Aaravos pointed to the door. "There is a guard outside. I will distract him. Go down the hall, take a left, down the spiral staircase two floors. You will find King Ezran there." He walked to the door, his eyes never leaving the intruder. He knocked and watched her hide behind the writing desk.

"What?"

"Something struck my window, breaking the glass. It's letting the rain in."

The guard pushed the door open. "Don't see why that's my problem," He grumbled while inspecting the damage. Aaravos wasn't allowed to have anything qualifying as a weapon, and the guard deemed some of those glass shards big enough to count. "Alright. Come with me and I'll find somewhere to put you until its fixed."

Aaravos bowed graciously. He watched the intruder sneak past the guard from the corner of his eye. She vanished into the hall, her footsteps silent. Aaravos had no clue what would happen next, and he couldn't wait to find out.

Ezran was in the throne room. Aanya's throne room, technically. While Ezran "ruled" from this castle for the better part of four years he still didn't consider it home or want to impose on Aanya's authority. He still spent much of his time there. At the moment, he and Aanya had just finished ironing out the mixture of troop deployments for a battlefield deep in earthblood elf territory, the farthest east front in the war. As with all such discussions it had turned to "how many soldiers from Duren should go for every one from Katolis." There were so few left, leaving Ezran alternately ashamed at being able to contribute so little to Duren and ashamed for risking even more of his people's lives.

A figure darted into the throne room in hot pursuit by several crownguards. She ran with her head down and arms out behind her in a way Ezran found curiously familiar in the half a moment he had to react. The figure skidded to a stop in from him. By this point Ezran and Aanya had started to draw their own swords. The state of the world necessitated royalty to be armed at all times. Harrow wasn't the only king felled by assassins in the last decade.

Before either could strike or the guards could reach her the intruder cried out, "Ezran!"

Ezran froze at the sound of her voice. He raised his hand for everyone to hold their attacks. The intruder threw her blades to the ground and dropped to her knees. She pulled down her hood then kept her hands raised in the air.

"...Rayla?"

"Yes," she nodded. "It's so good to see ya." She was breathing hard, as if she was more than just winded from breaking in.

Ezran dropped his sword. "You're alive! Is Callum alive? Do you know where he is? Is he okay? Is he with you?"

"He's... at the front gate... waitin' for the signal."

Aanya stepped between Ezran and Rayla. Her sword was lowered by still grasped tightly in her hand. "What signal?"

"You meetin' him there." She wobbled off balance. "If ya don't get there soon... I told him to run and-" she fell over, unconscious.

"Get her to Claudia! But keep a crownguard with them at all times!" Aanya commanded. The crownguards who had previously been chasing Rayla now picked her up to carry to the infirmary. They were incredibly confused, but trusted their queen enough not to question it.

Ezran was already headed to the gate.

"It could be a trap!" Aanya called out to him.

"I know and I don't care!" Ezran replied without stopping. Aanya retrieved his abandoned sword and chased after him.

Aanya reached the gate shortly after Ezran, where he had already shoved past the guards and one confused steward to throw the doors open. Rain spilled in and the wind chilled everyone to the bone. It was not the sort of weather anyone would be waiting outside in.

"Callum!" Ezran cried out and waited for anyone to appear. "Callum!"

Lightning struck the nearby hillside, creating an almost blinding flash. In the split second it passed, a hunched over figure shambled out from the other side of the open gate where he hid. The figure wore a cloak and hood of the same design as Rayla's, though it was bunched up near the chest as if being held shut. The cloak relaxed just enough for an arm to emerge and pull the hood down.

"Callum!" Ezran cried as he pulled his brother in from the storm. "You grew a beard!"

"It's not so much I grew one as I haven't had a chance to shave in over a month." Callum smiled. There might have been tears in his eyes, but he was too soaked from the rain to be certain. He stumbled forward but Ezran and Aanya caught him before he could fall.

Callum continued to hunch over almost as if he was shielding something.

"What happened? Where have you been all these years? Did you return Zym to his mother?"

"I'll explain later. Is Rayla okay?"

"She's..."

"She's unconscious," Aanya answered. "She's being seen to by one of our best healers." She was still suspicious, but seeing Ezran's reaction to both of them had calmed her fears somewhat. Ezran clearly trusted them, and she trusted Ezran's judgment in people.

"Thank you." Callum stood up and released his grip on the cloak. Ezran's suspicions were correct, Callum was holding a bundle of red cloth tightly to his chest. While taller than when they had last seen each other, Callum was nearly as scrawny as Ezran remembered. "Now," he paused to cough, "you have to take her to your healer too."

"Her?"

He withdrew the bundle and pressed it into Ezran's arms. Belatedly, Ezran realized that it was Callum's scarf. Swaddled within was what Ezran suspected and feared would be: a baby. She had a mop of brown hair and very light purple skin. Tiny nubs poked out from the hair just above her temples, and her right arm stuck out, showing five fingers on the hand. The baby was fast asleep, something Ezran found hard to believe was possible given the commotion. At least he hoped she was just asleep.

"Callum, who is this?" Ezran asked as if he didn't already know the answer. It was obvious from the child's features, but he needed to hear it from Callum himself.

"Her name is Sera, she's my and Rayla's daughter. She's sick."

Sera is named after a character from the video game Dragon Age: Inquisition, who is an elf that dislikes elven culture and prefers to live among humans. I thought it would be funny to use that name for a character who is literally half elf/half human.