THE ASHES OF AETHRIA

he Last Ligh

rs did

e sky-one by one-by hands

not in flame,

reads of forgotten time. Oceans boiled upward, swallowing the sky. Forests wept ash

people

e last song of the Empire,

ds were al

the ones d

gold and memory. They had once been Theurges, speakers of the Great Glyph, guardians of balance. But the Empir

spered, had no mor

urges betrayed

hattered, scattering it into fragments-each bound to a different echo of reality. The capital

igh that it forgets the

of them

ced a single shard of the Emperor's soul int

ch

ot remember. Woul

t

f-when time began to hunger and

rd woul

would drea

gue, "Aethria" meant

since, the sky

il

****************

ne – The

he ocean, tethered to the world by little more than ambition and ancient machinery. The moon hung low, silver and swollen, casting it

uiet tension as a predator before the pounce. The old gate had been half-swallowed by the earth,

this job sti

ered to himself, as much a mantra as a plan.

or-shard blade, a folded pry rod, and a thin velvet wrap for handling delicate artifacts. He c

around his face and

unched softly against the brittle floor, dust and bone-pale sand grinding beneath his heels. The light from

. Pre-Vireos. Mayb

sessive detail: a pendant of black silver, circular, with a shifting mirrored center. "The Eye

asked questions only when t

g subtly the deeper he went. The walls, once rough stone, becam

an his footsteps. He touched the wall.

couldn't name. The deeper he went, the more he felt like

bbed, but it was the first that

o obvious way in. Just more strange glyphs etched in faint spi

entation at chest level. His lan

pre

lowed. The d

a mountain rememberi

inating the dust-heavy air in soft shafts. At the center, a stone pedestal stood alone, surro

stal rested

, wrought from dark silver, its center filled with a swirling

eaming at him. But instincts didn't pay

ached

rs brushed the penda

f air. Like a

abyss-except for the glyphs, which now glowed along the w

to let go o

ould

ozen. His heartbeat thundere

the vis

dr

ori

not

aw a city in the clouds-nothing like Vireos-vast, crystalline, filled with towers that moved like tre

le voice wove through the

e final thread. The empi

ion vanished. The pendant clattered besi

his face, body shivering despite

ll the hells.

yphs d

er was si

ked up the pendant with his cloth. The thing was still w

velvet wrap and shoved

trying to steady his breath. "Ten

ngle step to

tire chamb

lit up-a sharp, burning crims

didn'

r

slope was steeper. And the walls-they were watching him. Glyphs lit as he pass

rying to b

The stone collapsed behind him in a thunder of dust and roar. He tumbled

moments, coughing, wheezing, t

nt was si

d tomb behind him, so