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The warded and protected Territories were being annihilated by some unseen force
Act, Talos Move! He tensed to fly--
A white flash fire roared fros reflexively shielded his body The s; the explosive percussion hurtled him down to the vale
Which had disappeared
The island haddisintegrated
Thronos plu ears Wind snapped as left of his still-burning wings They were useless
My lands,for them
He couldn’t fly Could only fall
He knew he had fallen as a boy Though he didn’t res all the way down
As now
Once more I fall
His back was turned to the world below--so he could keep his eyes on the sky Time seemed to slow
Traces of malevolent sorcery eddied around cri fractured those clouds, illu down around hi books A charred cradle
ForNow his real even dearer His heart twisted What could possibly be doed his eyes froazed below him The water rushed ever closer Blue and white flaulf Thronos had no shield from the heat When he hit, he would be incinerated
His life had been long and unfulfilling, his drea his mate unrealized Perhaps he was ht to right that uided mercy now
He turned to the nearby mountainside and spottedVrekeners Thousands of theulf to watch their home perish
Thronos had never named a successor His people were more vulnerable than they’d ever been For them, he had to survive
Wasn’t there a way? He couldn’t remember it!
What couldn’t he remember?
Once more I fall
FIFTY-FOUR
On a athered Vrekeners, N&iuana, the Queen of Sorceri, watched the Skye fall
One fe crackled all around her--and the bat she carried Morgana’s usurped poere so volatile that the color streams of her sorcery had morphed to a permanent black
As the two iatively charged ions
"I foresaw the Queen of Persuasion desperate to stay with King Thronos," N&iu away The water was already aflaana too kept her gaze trained "As soon as I left her and Sabine in Rothkalina, Melanthe probably created a portal back To nothing" Black swirls danced fro to escape her body "If the Vrekener survives, the ianttsunaana said, tone inscrutable "Of us"
"Not quite yet"
Frood Nereus rose up like a mountain himself, visible only to the immortal pair With a s
Then he brandished his divine triton, raising it over his head to subdue the waves The tsunae arrested in radually subsided, slipping to acquiescence
The surface was still, the fire defeated Before Nereus sank to the depths once ana
She frowned, but that was the least extraordinary thing she’d seen this day
A reviled realm--the bane of her entire life--had perished by fire and been entolad
The Valkyrie soothsayer turned to the sorceress queen "For better or worse, it’s begun"
FIFTY-FIVE
1 Portal to Vrekener outpost
2 Adjust directions, portal to outpost
3 Adjust directions again, portal to outpost
4 Offer deold to scour Canadian forests for difficult-to-find Vrekener outpost
5 Offer witches gold to scry for Thronos
6 Contact Loa, re: Hail Mary option--send gold deposit
7 FIND N&Iu shit because he needs you
9 Contact oracles and witches in old
10 Save up power for to after boys?" Sabine drawled, sashaying into Lanthe’s substitute suite
Her for repaired, nearly a week after the Territories had fallen
Lanthe glanced up fro Sabine see her panic, her despondency Both greith each minute "Thronos is not a boy--he’s my husband And I want him back"
"You look like hell Would you like me to weave an illusion over you?"
As if Lanthe could be bothered with her appearance--when every other thought in her head was YOU’RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME TO FIND HIM!
Hoas Thronos dealing with the destruction of his kingdos of loss? What if he thought he had nothing to live for and was careless in soee coup?