Page 23

7

Shadows and Earth

Aboulder the size of a house slides down the cliff face. I bat it away with a single thought. Sweat beads along my brow as I claw into the earth, forcing it to my bidding, having left my gentle whispers for the landmass to fucking move long ago.

Another boulder tumbles down, bouncing across the mountain as it falls, clashing into the trees and tearing out entire pieces of the ground, roots and all.

I pay it no mind.

Need to push a little further, I urge my shadows to join in the chaos.

The earth answers my call, and the entire mountain trembles.

All day, I’ve been here. Tirelessly focused, relentless on tearing down this whole fucking mountain.

With a thunderous crash, the whole structure teeters and falls, caving in on itself. Debris rains down around me, but I remain unscathed, standing amongst swirls of shadows and earth until there is no recognizable up or down.

Just pure chaos and rage. Only a blink of peace does this chaos bring me before it’s gone and my obsession returns.

I roar out my frustration as pieces of earth tumble around me. My singular, blissful second is gone, already returning to white hot rage.

Rage at the Jord Lord for taking the only piece of brightness I’ve known away from me.

Eventually the mountain stops quaking and the ground settles, still once more.

My boots crunch as I step out on a pile of rocks to assess the damage. I brush off dust from my unkempt shirt, buttons long broken at the top to expose my tattooed chest slick with sweat from the effort. Finally, the magic within me dissipates, exhausted from the effort.

The next part is usually harder. Reassembling a mountain isn’t easy.

Especially when you’ve done it for twenty days straight.

Twenty days that fucker has had Akemi. The Northern Continent New World Peace Treaty made sure of that with its fucking three-week customary waiting period between negotiations and the new laws commencing.

My chest convulses in pain, and I roar once more, tossing a boulder the size of a small town into the middle of the cavern’s lake.

Nope, that didn’t help.

Fuck.

I raise my chin to the ceiling. Eternal darkness yawns back.

This area of Terraguard was always my favorite. I would go camping up in these mountains when I was a young Underling. Climbing so high, I swear I could see the top of the cavern ceiling. It’s where my earth magic awakened. Every single blade of grass is familiar. Every pebble.

“Atlys.” General Damaris steps out from behind a palm tree. They’re outfitted in warrior leathers of the Coredivers, black to disguise the blood spots. “You need to stop this.”

I kick a loose rock.

“Come on. We need you on the front. This won’t bring her back—”

“I would move mountains if it meant bringing her back. Crush and rebuild ten-thousand times over if that meant she would be safe.”

Damaris hangs their head. “I know.”

“One more day,” I swear to all of the Gods listening. “One more day and the magic binding us to the old treaty will disintegrate just like this fucking mountain.”

“I think you’ve disintegrated and reformed this mountain enough times, Atlys,” Cadex says, stepping out from the shadows, his hulking form equal to my own. He runs a hand through his buzzed blond hair, tension dripping like the black blood on his sword. He stabs the sword into the ground and jumps over a particularly rocky area with impressive dexterity for a male so large. A shadow drops over his face. “It’s getting worse, Atlys.”

Damaris shifts, standing next to Cadex. “We need you on the front lines, focused on a solution.”