And Kings Fallen

Winds felt Seih shift, the last flicker of light in his soul going out.

Bitterness washed through his own as he prepared to unsheathe his blade, to give mercy to the one Domini who had tried to avoid all of this, the other already extending to meet the Shadows creeping towards them, darkness dripping off their frames.

Until the Light spoke.

Its voice rang across the world, defying the Darkness, brilliance flashing like lightning. That radiance speared out, cracking down in front of them, bright enough to overwhelm his vision.

When it faded, the Shadows lay slumped, a glowing creature of Light standing in their place, pure white fur drifting in an unfelt breeze. Snowy, branching antlers arced high over pointed, canid-like features that didn’t quite fit the meaty, clawless paws or the long flowing tail.

|Ah, Winds.| It laughed softly at him as the others began to stir, quiet exclamations breaking out.

Its form was strange, but he knew it. He stepped forward as Seih stirred, and knelt in the rubble. “I welcome you, Master of Light.”

A soft muzzle nosed gently at his shoulder, puffing lightly against his ear. |You have done well, Divining One.|

It stepped back, raising its gaze to an awed, raggedy group picking their way out from behind the wall. |But now I must take you away from here. This land is lost, and the world you knew is passing away. Come, we must move quickly.|

“You look much better now, dear.”

Winds turned to Seih as he stumbled out as if in a daze, smiling down at Ehna. “I am.”

Winds searched him for any lingering sign of the miasma, but there was none, his eyes clear and blue, reflecting a glimmer of light streaking across the sky. He turned to look, spotting a shimmer painted across the black, like bands of rain glittering down—a soft moonshine radiance. It was... beautiful.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Seih said quietly, gazing up as well. "It's—"

A tremor shaking beneath their feet cut him off, a rumble rolling through the ground.

|Come.| The Light caught their attention, nudging the slower ones onto its back. |Quickly, now.|

The rumble growling low beneath their feet punctuated its words, rising into a roar shaking the air, and Winds followed Seih’s gaze as he glanced back at the sight of flames erupting from its jagged peak, spreading a red glow across the sky. It reflected in his wide eyes, horrified recognition on his face.

“Reyahn....”

✧✨ ҉ ✨✧

This really was the end.

Seih ran, following the flicking tail of a white wrulf, a jarring sense of deja vu coursing through him. But this time it wasn’t a dream as the world crashed down around them.

The earth cracked open as they ran towards the rail and carts lined on the track, the rift swallowing buildings and streets in a crashing wave, the impact of an impossibly large chunk of rock jolting him off his feet.

A hand caught at his arm, thrusting him up again, the residents already half a length ahead. Maybe it was the weakness still faintly plaguing his limbs, like the aftermath of a bad illness, but he struggled to catch up, stumbling.

|Seih!| Winds snapped.

“I know—” he gasped out, gritting his teeth as something caught at his foot, tripping him, the ground seeming to crack beneath his knees—

He fell with a cry, clawing at stone and grit, his view of the cart disappearing—

Until white filled his vision, fingers clutching at fur, his face pressed against softness. A smooth rhythm pounded against the ground with every flash of streaking paws, and he caught his breath as he looked up to see burning comets raining across the sky, walls and houses flashing past, a glimpse of a cart rocketing beside them through the gaps.

He caught sight of Winds behind him on the wrulf's back, just as they angled away and lost the cart. “The— we need to—”

|I’m with them. They’ll make it.|

His brows crinkled, but a flicker of light in the corner of his eye caught his attention. White streaks, wrulves just like the one beneath them, glimpsed between flashing streets. There are... more?

|Hold on.|

He had only a moment to reflexively clutch around its neck before it launched above a gaping black rift, the wind streaming through his hair. Light like wings spread out beside them, flapping powerfully, the sheer speed blurring his vision, a fiery glow stretching after them, heat and noise shaking the world apart.

He could see it as he looked back, blinking away dry streaks. Liquid fire streamed down the mountain, engulfing the shattered remains of a once-proud city, steam and smoke rising in hellishly-lit billows, a shrill shriek lifting through the wind and sending a violent shiver crawling up his spine. The sound of Shadows burning as they were cleansed from the slopes.

It seemed to reach after them, clawing at their backs, and his hands clenched tighter in white fur, his gaze seeking out and finding a cart shooting down the rail, flying across a jagged rift. A glimmering glow seemed to encase it, lifting it over and back onto its course past the foothills, out beyond the city limits, speeding just ahead of the fire.

Little streaks of white seemed to flow down all across the mountain, escaping burning rivers, glimpses of tiny people rushing towards the outskirts and towards the fields flashing past as they broke through a burning haze, soaring over empty fields, out into the wilderness of rolling hills and jagged ravines.

He kept his eyes on Firemount, a prick of grief blossoming in his chest. It washed over him as the gentle winds ruffled his hair—as Light spiralled slowly towards the ground again, the glow rising above them, flames licking the sky, red and black consuming each other—that this was it. This was the fulfilment of his dreams.

|I’ve lost connection.|

He glanced at Winds to see the Divination staring towards it as well, a lost look on his face, his eyes haunted. |I can no longer feel the city.|

Paws settled softly on the ground next to the shadow of a sheltering ridge, wings fading away, and Seih set his hand on Winds' shoulder wordlessly as the Light spoke, quiet, |Your people are safe, your loved ones beyond the limits of the city.|

He closed his eyes. Brei, the residents... Light brushed his mind with the impression of pounding fear and exhilaration, but safety, even as chunks of burning rock and ash plummeted all around them, a glimmering light shielding them. In the end, Light had come for them, finally, and so few of them had made it out. They’d survived, but....

Their city, their broken lands... so many of the people he’d known and fought beside, fought for—Ged, Dais, Voice, and untold others—dead. His home, the Ripple, the peaceful slopes of trees, the vines and the herb gardens... all destroyed. Their precious, fragile world, and everything it had been....

“It’s gone.”

Light gazed up, consuming fire reflected in the brilliant glow of its eyes, a quiet sadness to its whisper.

|Yes, it is.|

All of it, destroyed. Seih bowed his head, taking in a shuddering breath, and let it slip free of his lips again, the red glow flickering behind his eyelids as it burned, trickling across his skin. Once-green foliage blackened and burned, the smell of death and sulfur carried on the heated breeze.

With a soft rumble, a dying whisper drifting on the winds, the last of the city drowned beneath the flames consuming it, disappeared...

And came to its end.