I picked a direction at random and set off across the glass plains, holding Lia tightly against my chest. The rain increased from a gentle pattering to a heavy downpour that soaked through my cloak and into my underclothes, but I welcomed the storm; the cool water washed my hair and face, purging me of the ash and dried purple blood that coated my skin and armor. As the storm grew stronger, it continued to darken the reflective field around us to the point where even my enhanced vision struggled to catch sight of the forest ahead without aid from the increasingly frequent flashes of lightning.
The towering trees at the edge of the clearing were unmistakable as I arrived beneath their dense, red leaves. Emberwoods. I turned to look back over the path I had walked and pursed my lips. While I had already known the answer to my questions somewhere in my subconscious, it had been easy to suppress the ideas and focus on Lia’s revival instead. Standing at the border between the glass field and the emberwood forest forced me to face the ideas head on. We’re exactly where we were before. Whatever this black glass is, I made it. I burned the forest down...and made this. As I stared over the empty expanse, I noticed the rainwater consistently ran back towards the center of the space where I had awoken.
A chill ran down my neck as I pictured what the inferno I had created looked like from the outside. They would have seen it from Mayaan, maybe even Lienna. I hope nobody was on the road to the Mountain Gate; that would have…
A memory pulled itself from the fog that obscured my recollection of the fire. Marin. My stomach dropped as I watched her run off into the forest in my mind. She was close by. If she wasn’t fast enough, she could’ve...I could’ve…
I doubled my pace towards the treeline and forced the emotions down. Get Lia out first. Everything can wait until then. The glassy fields came to an abrupt halt at the edge of the forest, and I realized that the expanse was actually an enormous crater; a three-foot high wall made entirely of glass stood before me, where my flames had somehow compacted the earth and everything on it down into the bowl-like depression I had just crossed. I blinked at the wall in awe for a moment, then shook my head. Everything else can wait.
I leapt out of the crater and landed in the soft grass of the forest. As soon as my feet impacted the dirt, pent-up mana rushed out in all directions, and a neon map blazed to life behind my eyes. The world spread out before me in vivid detail, but the crater behind me remained entirely blank; the hole in my Detection was perfectly defined, mapped up to the point where the forest floor met the black glass in crisp, jagged definition. I allowed myself a single second of curiosity while my mana continued to reach out in all directions. Whatever that material is, it completely blocks mana from passing over or through it. That could be useful. Or dangerous.
The moment of reflection passed when my Detection found a point of reference to orient myself in the world. The main road from Mayaan to the Mountain Gate ran parallel to my current position, two miles to the south. I turned my head back to the crater one final time, observing it from my place of elevation on the forest floor. Based on the rough dimensions I held in my head, the space was nearly four miles in diameter and sat only a few hundred yards from the road at its closest point. I looked back down to Lia, lying unconscious in my arms, and gave her a soft kiss on the forehead. It was worth it. Anything would have been worth it.
I dove into the forest at full speed and began my trip back to safety. While the journey would have been much easier on the main road, I chose to run through the gnarled roots of the emberwoods instead. A procession of carts and foot traffic lined the southern road, all heading towards an expanding crowd that gathered at the forest’s edge nearest the crater I had left behind. Even as night fell over the pitch-black forest, my Detection revealed the path forward, and I was more than happy to sacrifice speed in order to avoid the curious eyes of the townspeople.
The sound of rain on the trees overhead quickly faded away as I left the lingering storm behind, and the forest fell into silence, leaving me without distraction from my thoughts. What have I become? I scanned the woods around me with Detection for signs of Marin’s retreat, watched the crowd begin to pick through the forest towards the crater, and listened intently to Lia’s heartbeat, all in a futile effort to ignore the question in my head. We would have made it out of that encounter unscathed if it weren’t for me. My darkness infected her. It was my fault she…
I fought back a sudden wave of shame and sadness as the image of Lia’s unblinking eyes haunted me. I’m a ticking time bomb. I can’t just keep pretending life is normal if it means the people I love get hurt. The idea forced me to stop running and rest against a twisted emberwood. I can’t stay here anymore. I looked down at Lia’s peaceful face, and I immediately felt my frantic heartbeat begin to slow. I can’t live without her, either. After brooding over the conflicting
