The band started back on the road to Feon as soon as the sun rose. The Tower was still nowhere in sight. They passed an area where there was a random rock formation.

"That's the Lookout," Roth informed her. He was at the reins. "That means we only have a couple more hours to go."

But surely that meant the Tower should've been in sight. The only reason it wouldn't be was because someone either made it invisible or it was no more. And if the Tower was no more, then Feon…

More formations like the Lookout dotted the landscape the further they went. It was as though if someone took a hammer and smashed it on the ground, causing it to break apart. There was only one thing that she could think of that could do that sort of damage at that magnitude, the Earth Crystal. Had someone harnessed its power for destruction?

“What happened here?” she asked as the cart continued to bump along. The path was even rougher now. Whatever affected the scenery damaged the path too, though it was still clear enough for a cart to go along. But she understood why they were using donkeys instead of horses. They handled terrain like this better. “And please give me an answer. I’m tired of being kept in the dark. Something terrible has happened.”

That was probably an understatement. If she hadn’t known what direction Feon was from the Forest of the Elves, she would’ve thought they had gone the wrong way. The grass was taller than she remembered it getting and huge bushes dotted the landscape among all the rocks.

Roth and Yoth remained silent. Jyn was about to speak, but Kyn shook his head. For a moment, Celeste was unsure if anyone would answer her question. Kyn moved beside her and collected his thoughts for a moment.

“Do you know anything about crystals?”

“Not much, other then you can harness an elemental power in one. I know that it’s complicated to form a crystal and that most of them are small because it’s hard to make them. The Earth Crystal in Feon was an exception because they melded several crystals together so they could affect a wide area with Earth magic.”

“Do you know what happens when a crystal gets destroyed?”

Celeste shook her head. “I thought they were indestructible.”

“Nearly, but it’s still possible with enough magic. But when it does, all the power stored in there bursts out. With a normal-sized crystal, it would just hurt the one holding it and anyone nearby.” Kyn indicated the land around them where there were even more rock formations than before, yet oddly enough there was an increasing amount of plant life. “I don’t think I have to tell you what would happen with a crystal the size of the Earth Crystal in Feon.”

She had a feeling she was going to see it first hand. But that would explain why she couldn’t see the Tower. It was probably no longer standing. It would be the first structure to go since it had housed the Crystal itself.

The cart came to a stop and all the elves hopped out. Roth and Yoth brought out some sacks while Jyn went on ahead a little bit to scout the area. Kyn helped Celeste out of the cart. She looked around, hoping to find something recognizable. There were certainly large mounds of something, but they were so overgrown with grass and vines she couldn’t tell what lay under them. Kyn followed behind her along with Roth and Yoth.

“This is where the outer wall used to be,” Roth stated. “You used to be able to see a lot more of the rubble, but things have grown a lot since then. And to think, this wasn’t even at the epicenter of the Shattering and there’s so little left…”

“So little left…” Celeste could only whisper. It was like her voice fled and refused to come back. Earthquakes usually left rubble in their wake. How powerful had this one been to leave almost nothing behind?

“Nice going, Roth.” Yoth gave his twin a light smack on the head. “She’s already having a bad enough time, you don’t need to rub it in. Come on, let’s go find something to bring back and let Kyn handle this.” He looked to Kyn. “Unless you need one of us to stay with you.”

“No, I think the fewer people around, the better.”

They nodded before heading off in the same direction as Jyn. Kyn came up beside Celeste. He put a hand on her shoulder.

“Come, I think there’s something you need to see. It won’t be easy, but I believe it will help.”

He led her to a pillar that was covered in moss, though not completely. There was something etched into it. Kyn scraped off some of the moss around it so she could read it better.

“Human blood beware, the earth is now your enemy. Tread carefully all who would enter these now-cursed grounds.” That was certainly a poetic way of saying keep out. But what did it mean by the earth being the enemy? It wasn’t like the ground itself could spontaneously move.

“Did an elf write this?”

Kyn shook his head. “No, though it does sound like something translated from a piece of elvish literature. And what I want to show is a bit above that.” He scraped some more moss off. “Does that seem familiar to you?”

It was the seal of the city, a crystal with thorns surrounding it. They were on official buildings, but she saw them more often on the gates. She traced her fingers over it, though she had to stand on her tiptoes to reach it. This had probably been part of the grand gate of the outer walls of the city, probably the only thing the leaders bothered to maintain in the lower rings. And there was barely anything left of it.

Regardless of the warning, Celeste rushed in. Kyn yelled and chased after her, but it was clear that there was a reason he wasn’t a warrior. Something spurred her on, something she hadn’t felt in a while. As she ran through the tall grass and hopped over the occasional vine, her chest tightened. Yes, she had felt that once a long time ago when her mother succumbed to her illness and she realized she was truly alone. She had run then too.

She nearly stumbled over a piece of rubble that she didn’t see thanks to all the plants, but she kept on moving. She needed to make it to the middle rings to see if anything was left, anything at all. Surely there was something. Madame Bustier would’ve survived, she wouldn’t let something like the collapse of the city kill her. Neither would Owain or Derrick. And they would have left her a sign, a hint of where they were going. She just had to get there first and none of the elves would be able to stop her.

Something rustled beside her, catching her attention. A large vine whipped out and wrapped itself around her waist. Celeste pushed against it in an attempt to free herself, but it kept on tightening. Perhaps this was what the warning had been talking about. They should’ve just said something about hostile plants in the first place instead of being so poetic. She kicked at the vine, only to have her foot just bounce off them. And she thought vines had been tough in the orphanage garden, theses were even tougher know that they were larger and coursing with earth magic.

But still, she kept struggling. She wasn’t sure what else to do. Celeste didn’t want to give up, not before she figured out what exactly happened. There were too many unanswered questions for her to go happily into the afterlife with. If she died now, she’d haunt what appeared to be an empty city with only occasional visits from Roth, Yoth, and probably Rusty.

A yell interrupted her spiraling thoughts. Jyn dove down from somewhere and cut the vine in half with her blade. As the vine fell away, she grabbed the back of Celeste’s dress and dragged her away from it. Celeste flailed.

“No, I need to get to the second Middle Ring!” She insisted as Jyn ran toward the gate. “I need to see if anything’s left! Anything, no matter how big or small!”

“There is nothing here for you but rubble!” Jyn tightened her grip on her so she couldn’t hit her with her arms. “Stop struggling! I am trying to save your life, even if you are suicidal running into Feon like that without some sort of weapon!”

As soon as Jyn crossed by what was left of the gate, the vines retreated. She let Celeste go, but soon tackled her when she tried to run back in. Kyn soon came running there, huffing a little bit and trying to catch his breath.

“Celeste, please listen to me.” He knelt beside her. Jyn released her once she stopped trying to get away. “I don’t know how you ended up in that cave or why you can’t remember that. But I know one thing for sure. You say that you had a life and family before the Shattering. But that simply can’t be. The Shattering was fifteen years ago. You would’ve only been four when it happened.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “I’m not sure what was so traumatic for you to create such a complex delusion or where you got all that information from, but…”

Celeste clenched her fist and struck out, landing a blow on his face. Since it was a wild punch, it didn’t have that much force behind it, but the suddenness of it caught Kyn off-guard and he stumbled back. He held up a hand to stop Jyn from retaliating as he wiped the blood off his lip.

“Everything I went through and everyone I knew is real!” Celeste got to her knees but didn’t stand up. “I don’t care if you think I am mad. Just yesterday, this city was standing and I knew where everyone was! And now, there’s nothing left and I can’t even go back to... To…”

Her throat closed up and the words refused to come up. She gripped the grass with her hands and started tearing at it. Once she hit the dirt, she stopped and covered her face with a hand. Then she wept. She wanted to sob, but she couldn’t get any sounds through, so she wept in complete silence. At one point, she laid on the ground and curled up. She could hear the elves talking, but she didn’t care. They didn’t understand what was going on. After all, they thought she was mad.

Celeste wept for what had been and for the loss of what could’ve been. She wept for all the people that had been lost by such an event, probably people she knew. She wept for the loss of the once-great city, even if it had been a struggle to live in sometimes. But most of all, she wept for the fact that she had been safe, asleep somewhere while all of this was going on. And now, she was all alone, a feeling she hated more than anything else.

“Celeste, we have to go,” Kyn told her as he came over. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but her tears had only slowed down a little. “It’s not a safe place to dwell, even outside the city. Roth and Yoth have everything they need. I understand all of this is a lot to process, but there’s nothing here that can help you.”

Celeste almost didn’t listen to him after what he had said, but her instincts told her that he was right about the area not being safe. So she let him help her up and into the cart. Kyn sat next to her and Jyn sat across from her, glaring at her. The cart started, away from the grave of the city where Celeste once lived. Celeste couldn’t even bear to look back at it. Her heart was already breaking, it didn’t need to be torn in two.