Map
Sanctuary
Prologue
Prima
Year 430 of the Genesis Age
The depth of the hollow abyss had nothing on the profound recesses of my mind. The cold, dead shadows that surrounded me had nothing on the darkness within my own heart. The primitive solitude, the wild silence, clutched me within a foreign grasp. I was a stranger in my own body, searching for an absolution that would never come. The death I thought I had died but hadn’t. No matter how greatly I wished I had.
I wasn’t sure how long I’d lain here, at the bottom of the endless chasm, how much time had passed since Valin had made his choice and banished me to its depths. Painfully aware of every bone beneath my skin, I gritted my teeth as I rose in the gloom. I blinked repeatedly to clear my eyes and waited for the world to stop its spinning.
There was no source of light down here, but it didn’t matter. They’d given me the tools to adapt.
I shouldn’t be alive. My body should have broken against the stone, limbs poised at various unnatural angles, blood poolingbeneath my shattered skull. Instead, I had a headache and a rage in my stomach that knew no bounds.
Was this mercy? Or a punishment?
I gazed around at a new world, a dark and empty void. The cold air made me shudder, and I cursed my bare arms as I stepped forward, remembering what Valin had told me just hours ago. Had it been only hours? I wouldn’t know.
“We don’t know what they’ll make us do,” I muttered in memory, mimicking. “You’ll need your full range of motion.” Though even the skintight fabric hugging the rest of me did little to stave off the chill.
I cursed Valin for everything he was and everything he’d been.
Measured steps allowed my enhanced vision to adjust to the darkness. Coarse and gritty dirt speckled with dying blades of grass supported trees so tall, I couldn’t see the tops of them. I held onto a trunk and stepped over one of their fallen brethren. Something damp hung in the air. Not quite rain and not quite a mist, but something in between, dense enough to soak through my thin clothes but not so thick as to obstruct my vision or force me to seek shelter.
Viscous mud sloshed under my boot as I stepped down on the other side of the log. I lifted my other foot to take another step but paused, listening. A quiet grinding sound, slow and laborious—and so low, I almost didn’t hear it—reverberated through the tree, as if something was awakening from a long slumber.
I knew nothing of this place, but I knew something was wrong. Very wrong.
I reached tenuously along that thin tether in desperation.
Valin. Where am I? What have you done?
Another sound echoed from my left, closer, almost a snort. I turned cautiously in the dark, eyes narrowed. A rising stenchjoined the cold, wet air. Something new, something foreign, something wrong.
It emerged from the trees slowly, padding toward me on gigantic white paws.
I froze. Large, wild animals were gone. They’d become extinct years ago, along with the humans. And yet, here was one now, stalking toward and eying me as if daring me to make the first move.
It appeared catlike, but it was at least twice the size of a panther, if my hazy memory of such beasts wasn’t failing me. I’d never seen one, only traced the shape with my finger in an old book from my father’s library. It was certainly larger than the few remaining feline and canine companions we had back home. But nothing of the size of the thing before me existed anymore. At least, it wasn’t supposed to.
The colossal head held a powerful jaw and sharp eyes. The hard ridge of the sleek back flared into four legs, the hind limbs slightly larger and longer than the ones in the front. Glistening white scales so fine and soft they had the appearance of cobbled leather shone upon the surface where thick fur should have been, and feathered wings as tall as I was sprouted from its back. Even without taking its tremendous wingspan into account, one paw was the size of my head.
It approached me cautiously, sharp eyes glowing bright red, but stopped a few feet away as if waiting for something. I didn’t blink as I peered back, holding its gaze, focused.
It lunged.
As silently as it had slinked from out of the trees, it lurched forward, teeth bared—and passed right through me.
The twitch of my fingers was the only sign I’d done anything, and yet the beast landed behind me as if I were only a shadow. Another talent they’d given me.
The creature skidded, whirling back around. It lunged again as I materialized and rammed into me full force. I slammed into the mud. My head ricochetted off the hard soil under the muck and my vision spotted. Winded, I rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding the beast’s claws. It swiped at nothing but dirt as I darted back to my feet and ran.
Fallen limbs snapped behind me as the monster destroyed them in its pursuit. The pounding of its massive paws against the forest floor made the ground vibrate, but my footing was sure.
My eyes flicked left and right, looking for an escape, but as fast as I was, the strange creature seemed to keep up. Panic strained my lungs. Eventually, I would tire, and I couldn’t afford to play the guessing game of which one of us had more stamina.
