Everywhere
she looked, bodies littered the landscape. An ocean of blood which threatened
to drown the Dawnspire. The sound of plated boot on grass the only noise for
miles.
I have been here
before, surrounded by the broken bodies of my people. It drove me away then.
She was weary. Numb. A void. She dimly realized her steps
had brought her near a cluster of bodies. Her heartbeat quickened, and a surge
of adrenaline coursed through her veins. She stared, but they did not rise. She
exhaled slowly.
They can’t. Not like
they did.
Unbidden, the image of the phoenix heart consumed her vision
and her hand rose to clasp the golden kraken around her neck.
Unbidden, she remembered.
The studies he would have done. The joy and awe in his eyes
at the sight of a god wreathed in fire and light.
Instead, his eyes had been aflame with pain as he turned to
look at his daughter. Full of rage, anguish, regret…and love.
Love, as he and the horrors of flesh and bone around him
burned away in a blinding inferno borne of obsession.
For her.
Cold metal pressed painfully into her palm as tears began to
fall.
Tyleril Silversword 