Chapter 401: Beneath The Sundered Sky
Three days after the Heavenfall, all across Ayther the sky was rent open to a shimmering, ominous darkness. A second sky, roiling with the storms of Hell.
From it fell motes of blue and green, like dying fireflies drifting through the air slowly, barely visible to those without manasight. Where they fell, magic unraveled. Not by much, but enough that the most complex spellforms would begin to break under the unending wounds in their construction.
During the day, the sky-on-sky of the Grand Perdition dumped the ashfalls of Hell all across the world. And during the night, the storms of the shrouded, nigh-uninhabitable moon thundered in perpetuity.
But this was not the only sign of what was to come.
*
At the Norneau Academy of Magic, Keiya stared out over the waters of the Grand Lake, her familiar Nimfi, a blue spirit that chose the shape of an otter, on her shoulder. Here, the sky had been clear until its sundering, and the angry slash of grey waved and throbbed in the sky as it tapered off to the west.
Classes had been canceled until further notice as the staff and professors worked around the clock to shore up and repair the city’s defenses. But that didn’t stop the students from engaging in self-study. Special-status students like her had taken up the call and were doing everything they could to train the rest of the school for combat or defense.
But even if her powers had grown significantly since completing her bond with Nimfi, Keiya’s specialty had been potions, and so she made potions.
"That’s it for the noraes malt," Ann, Keiya’s human girlfriend, wiped her forehead and looked over from where she’d been working. "Hey? Keiya!"
"Hmm?" Keiya turned away from the window. "Sugar!" she swore as she realized she’d been overmixing her batch of rejuvenation potion in its cauldron. She quickly moved her hands, forcing the mixture to halt as she pulled her mana away from it. Instead of being liquid, it now had the consistency of jelly.
Grabbing a towel, Ann took the small cauldron after wrapping the towel around its handle. She placed it in a receptacle and added a bowl for the mix to drain into. After letting it cool for a moment, she took a small pinch and tasted it.