Embers in the Dust

They looked at each other, then around them. It was clear that Yla was showing them something, so Lyla stood next to Myla as she sat on a moss-covered boulder in the forest. Lyla heard it first. Wings? Without taking time to think of the physics, they let themselves float up above the tree line and look around. They were on a mountain somewhere. Above them, an enormous dragon with orange, blue, and green scales soared through the air. From its body, something black dripped off it, like oil. Smoke-like shadows flowed from its body, trailing it but connected to it.

It passed over them, landing on a plateau that made up a valley between five large mountains. It crashed into the ground, its body not even changing the various sigils that had been carved into it. Stumbling forward, it crawled its way into a cavern entrance, descending inside one of the smaller mountains.

The sun moved by quickly, as if time was speeding forward. The twins watched as an elven woman with blond hair and white and gold robes made her way to the center of the plateau. Soon after, a group of kobolds rushed out, scared of something from within the cave. Time slowed down to normal, and they saw a group appear from it, casting spells and attacking the kobolds. When they were slain, they stopped and stared out to Helena who had sat down and waited for them.

As if blinking, the twins found themselves gliding the great distance, now only forty or fifty feet away from Helena as a red-headed half-elf shouted out at Helena.

“You didn’t have to do this! You still don’t!”

“It’s too late for me, child.”

Before having a chance to speak again, Helena stood, then levitated into the air. Her head went limp, her eyes unfocused, before snapping back to attention. Though Helena had been there before, something else was behind her eyes and actions. Her hands flew out in front of her as lightning shot out from her fingertips. The half-elf ran forward, casting lightning at Helena as others flanked her. Two of them, dark elves, were using daggers to throw themselves forward and reappear next to each other as they moved around the field. A human woman shot arrows from an intricately carved bow, the arrows exploding with various elements as they hit. A genasi aimed shot after shot of a guided spell towards Helena, while another human absorbed Helena’s attacks and redirected them away.

“We could stop now! We… we could go home…” The half-elf shouted through a broken voice.

“There is no home for me now, child.”

As tears fell from Helena’s face, they felt themselves being pulled away. Less than a mile away, Markus ran up the side of the mountain, rocks cascading as he tried his best to make it further along the path. Near him, the twins could see a younger dark elven woman, an earth genasi, and a changeling. Lyla and Myla stared in shock as the changeling turned and looked back at Markus. She was older, but it was clear that it was her. Her eyes were wide in panic, and her voice was anything but calm.

“She had to give me this for a reason!” She yelled out while holding up a simple codex in her hands.

She turned it one more time, then yelped as the side of it opened quickly and something shot out of it. Catching it in her hand, she looked at it to see a single coin, with a shining metallic glint. The twins saw it first, but as Markus passed her, Meg’s voice became broken after she gasped. Markus and the others turned back to look at her, shock and fear on their faces. Starting from her boots, her body was disintegrating in front of them. Before it reached her torso, she looked up once last time at Markus.

“Dad?” Her voice was shaken, afraid…

As he reached out to her, the codex fell from her hand and the ash and dust swirled around Meg, until there was nothing else. They weren’t sure when they opened their eyes again, but after the tears of watching an older version of their friend’s child disappear, they saw themselves standing behind a large throne. Above them were only stars and lines of energy that connected between them all. A woman, who Lyla knew was Nyx, sat there. Across from her were their friends, but different. They were all there, but older, more tired, ragged.

I can’t tell from this far away, but is one of us missing an arm? Myla asked her sister.

Shit… It looks like it!

In front of the party was Leaf looking up at Nyx, who was as tall as a giant. She spoke, and they felt it in their ears, their mind, and somewhere in their chests.

“You have to decide. You can help those below with Asmodeus, stopping the Hounds of War forever and helping to weaken him, or you can close the rift, causing magic to become unstable and weakening Vecna. It may be hundreds of years before either can be completely defeated, but you give people the chance. You give them hope. I cannot interfere on my own, as it would be an act of war between the primordials and gods… but you all can. Choose, Leaf.”

Leaf looked back to his friends, and the twins could see how scared he was, though he tried to hide it. As he spoke, a gust of wind took the twins away, making it impossible to see or hear what he said, what he will say.