I felt the fissure crack open far beneath me, then bubble up and break
with a diagonal energy just 100 feet from where I stood. The fissure
would only hold for a few minutes, announcing itself as a warning of
things to come, so that my people would have some time to retreat,
before the fault folded back on itself and consumed everything standing.
Safaro watched with satisfaction as the people of Yet began to run. He
did not understand until he watched them forego the high ground of
Elan and run into the sea. He rushed forward just as the fissure we
created together broke open into a chasm that pulled the dirt right out
from under the Hir’s army.
The people of Yet continued to scatter into the sea as the depths swallowed
the Hir’s front line. As soon as the last of my people were safe, I took
it all. The land that held Elan to the shore of Yet fell away, allowing the
water to rise up, pounding out new territory as it ripped through the
battle field. But it was not enough.
It was only then that I understood that creation and destruction are often
the same thing. As the sea claimed its prize, I opened up the foundation
of Elan itself – breaking it from the bottom like an egg.
The power of the sea did the rest, opening her arms to the island in an
eternal embrace that left only the tip of the land visible with the children
I had left there clinging to the ancient trees for their lives.
Fear, terror, and isolation had burned through their innocence, but in
exchange I had given them something else – a chance to survive and
create something new, to evolve into sorceresses who were also warriors.
As Safaro twisted the poison chain around my neck with his last breath,
I imagined I could see the eyes of all those Amasiti children and hoped
only for their forgiveness.
And in the burning light of my ascension, I floated away to the dying
screams of the Hir, Safaro, and all his murderous men and was at peace.
100 | NKLC MAGAZINE