Chapter 462: Infestation
A pulsing sense of place had assaulted Amarena ever since the dream of her mother. But her task was not yet done, and so she ran over mountains and hills, over ash plains and hardened bogs. Until she reached a sea of lava she did not recognize.
What is this? Amarena asked in her mind, saving her breath. The land for great measures around had glowed, but only near its burning shore did she see the true extent of the unfamiliar formation. A red-orange ocean that stretched beyond the horizon, embers flying into the air like a fiery rebuke to the falling ash.
And then she looked up, and saw something she hadn’t seen in what felt like years.
Stars. And centered amongst them...
Ayther.
The blue world, its lands still lush with life.
Her pause lasted only long enough to place the next beacon, away and hopefully safe from that molten shore, and yet she felt renewed by it as she dashed and leaped over the lava flows. Moving in a full arc around the crater, she realized where she was.
The Eye of Hell, opened as it had never been before
At the highest cliffs, she saw the sea stretch before her, and an island in the middle, half hidden by the heat haze, no matter from where she looked.
And every time a Hellquake pounded, more land fell into the burning sea.
Even while in motion, she found the destruction strangely beautiful. A primordial battle she alone was the witness to. A thing not of justice or wrath but of existence. Was she the only one who would know this sight?