On the night the Fjordell invasion begins, the children of New Elantris are in the care of Matisse - a young girl who has made herself indispensable as their caretaker while the adult Elantrians prepare for something momentous. Spirit has asked Galladon to teach the others a corrective line to add to their Aons, a modification he believes will restore their magic. But before anyone can test the theory, soldiers set fire to New Elantris and begin slaughtering its inhabitants. With her adoptive father Dashe fighting on the walls and no adults left to protect them, Matisse takes charge of fifty terrified children. She improvises authority over the older boys, leads the group through the dark and treacherous streets of old Elantris, and uses a brilliantly drawn Aon Ashe to blind and misdirect the pursuing soldiers. When she is finally cornered, a soldier's blade at her throat, the light of AonDor floods the city - Elantris is restored, and Dashe rises from a fatal wound to save her. A companion short story to Elantris, set during the novel's climax and told from a perspective that reveals what was happening inside the city walls while Raoden fought to save it from without.
