The dirt sculptor has finally returned.He had made it his quest to find the Creator and destroy him. In the hundreds of years since he left the City of Dawn behind, he had scoured the world of Sonhadra, looking for any hint, anything whatsoever that would lead him in the right direction. But now, his time was growing short, the need to avenge his brothers deafened because Annahs had fallen asleep.
Quist sneered at the growing shadows around him. Annahs symbolized another failure, one more loss, and he taunted the oncoming slumber with threats.Try and clay me out, Lusheenn, my vengeance won’t end even in dirt.
His blood raced as his adrenaline pumped. He shook his head, fighting the strange sensations filling him. He knew what they were, he never dwelled behind tinseled veils. What he felt could only mean he was close.
I found him.The thought made him giddy and he shot back into the sky above the trees.
He knew he wasn’t the strongest valos. In his heart, he knew he wouldn’t beat out his brothers, Sundamar and Galan, and he was also the most impulsive. It was a fault he contended with, given to him by Lusheenn, the faults of the Divine’s own. But his willpower was thestrongest, his dedication. Why? He had to know. It was the question he longed to ask his Creator.Why the dirt and shadows did you createme?
Quist seized his own fate and focused. His wings flapped in the lingering, last few rays of the setting sun.
Lusheenn, you are mine.
Mine to kill.
Mine to bring to your knees, you will die like the rest, like Annahs, like me, bowed under the weight of the life-giving light.
There.
His sharp eyes zeroed in on the southern swamps far, far in the distance, closer to the City of Noon, and still cast in the dim aura of middling dusk.
You created me to kill you. And so I will.
Chapter Three
YAHIRO
It was the dead of night and yet the nightmares of her past stayed at bay. She clutched the stone to her chest and soaked in its warmth.
I love the warmth. I would live in it if I could.She hadn’t gotten a wink of sleep, her mind alert for any sound, any noise of an encroaching predator. Yahiro had made another oath to herself as she lay waiting: she would last through the night so she could try and find the shipwreck in the morning. She would rather spend her remaining nights behind metal walls and metal bars than alone, in the dark, on an alien planet. It scared her... the wildness.
She hadn’t counted on the night to last an eternity. Her mind grew fuzzy and the haze of sleep tried to battle her to the death. She refused to let it win. There had been days in her past life where she had foregone sleep. If she tried hard enough, she could forego it now.
Her senses were in overdrive. Every subtle smell, every small sound, even the shifts of her heartbeat were cataloged in her head. Yahiro became used to them all, training herself for this alien world. If something changed, she’d know. She’d know and it would have to be enough to decide whether it was a change to hide, fight, or run from.
She never knew how well she could adapt to a new environment until she was continuously thrown into them. She’d treat this alien world like any other undercover mission.
