The Summersky manor felt empty.

When Venti and I returned a few hours after dawn, the guards let me through without issue, identifying Ashran at sight. Within, we saw only servants in the halls. Abbahs, scrubbing the lacquered floors and dusting the walls. They wiped at massive windows until they glinted under the suncatcher’s lights. And outside, in the gardens, I saw a team of druids walking along the sculpted bushes and trees, casting spells that brought flowers to bloom.

In the distance, Caereith was dark with rain. It seemed almost a different world out there, where the light of the suncatcher trees didn’t reach. Here in Felzan, there was no storm. Only ever-present daylight. Even in the night, the suncatchers didn’t go out. They only dimmed. Resting, but unsleeping.

In the morning? It was like having a reflection of the blue sky perpetually overhead. Only the rustle of leaves gave the illusion away.

“I suppose the City of Lights really is a fitting name for this place,” I said, my eyes watching as the trees above shed their glowing leaves, twirling to the ground like little sheets of solid light. “It almost feels like a different world from where we were months ago, down in the flooded lands.”

“I would agree with you, if other worlds didn’t already exist,” Venti replied.

I glanced at the bluebird on my shoulder. At night, the suncatcher leaves took on her color. A pale cerulean, with wing-tip feathers of turquoise and cyan.

“You’d agree? I thought all the sunbirds called this city home.”

“Tomatoes are fruits that sprout from vines, Rowan. There are always exceptions.”

“So you’re the tomato, then? Special?”

“About time you noticed.”

“You’re pretty deformed for a tomato.”

Venti slapped the back of my head with a wing and I chuckled, my lip quirking into a small smile. The walk had been a good idea—a way to empty my thoughts and process what I felt. There was still a weight in my chest, heavy as a stone pressing against my heart, but it was no longer sharp, threatening to pierce through.

It pained me to do so, but I wanted to visit father today. To just… talk. Make up for lost time. I wasn’t his son, not to him. But I could be a friend.

That was enough. It had to be.

My feet carried me across the hall, and I stepped right past the servants, unnoticed. I didn’t wear a weave inside. Not when I wanted to avoid being seen by all the workers. As I walked through the manor, I fought the urge to use my boots to shadow-walk through the manor. It would only leave me lost. And if I were particularly unlucky, I had no doubt that it would end up with me stumbling into some royal’s room.

I was a guest. I had no intention of causing a fuss, especially when it had already been rude not to show my face at the dinner the hosts prepared last night.

Now the only question was…

Where were the hosts?

I turned a corner and arrived at a western lounge, opening into a terrace full of flowers and sculpted thorn bushes. Beyond the steps was a part of the garden that had been left to grow unchecked. Trees jutted out at random, covered in moss, their roots resting against large stones. Shade covered the world below the trees. Overgrown shrubs, clustered shrooms, and swaying ferns fought the breeze.

“This is the place?” I asked Venti, and the bird nodded.

“She should be here around this time.”

Nodding, I stepped into the gardens, walking past the marble balustrades and onto the soil. Light leaked between the gaps in the leaves, shining down like little blue freckles on the grass. It reminded me of my childhood. Back when I sneaked out into the forests after Elanah’s lessons, chasing torchbugs and fleet flowers, making up rhymes in my mind that made little sense.

I watched the sprouts blooming overhead, all lemons, oranges, and grapefruits. And out of the corner of my eye, hiding under the shadow of the branches, I saw something move.

It made no sound.

Frowning, I felt the eyes on me. Somewhere in the trees. The gaze traveled from my left to my right, passing through the branches and leaves without so much as a sound.

I turned my eyes to Venti, giving the bird a questioning look.

She shrugged.

I returned the gesture. Oh, well. It wasn’t like I felt any danger from the gaze—just curiosity. The time I’d spent in Avnlasce was more than enough to make me understand things. The gaze of something dangerous was one thing. It was like ice, slick and cold, like a needle sliding into my spine.

This look was like a bee, humming around me, buzzing and reminiscent of pollen and summer. I smiled wryly. As an immortal, describing the intangible came almost naturally. It added an entirely new layer of depth.

The tree above me rustled and a shape dropped down towards me.

Smiling lightly, I stepped into the shadow and disappeared, emerging just a few feet away. As soon as I stepped out, I heard a cry of surprise as a small kid plummeted down from the trees, hitting the ground where I previously stood. She landed with a roll, back on her feet within the next instant. She had crimson leaves on her head, speckled with gold, and amber eyes like pools of honey.

The girl turned to face me, her head tilted in curiosity.

“You’re like Freyarch,” she said, and I raised an eyebrow.

“I’m not a Fae.”

“You’re one of the invisible people.”

“So you can see me without a weave. How?”

“Secret!” she grinned, stepping up to me. She was barely half my height as she looked up at my face. “You’re tall.”

I nodded knowingly, “You’re small.”

At our exchange, Venti pecked at my face and flew off my shoulder, settling down over the girl’s head. She perched there with a reproachful look.

“You’re talking to a princess, Rowan. Don’t be rude.”

“Venti!” she lit up as the bird landed on her head. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a piece of… fruit. An orange. She tossed it up and Venti caught it in her beak. Swallowed. The young princess turned her sparkling eyes back to me—ones that could see more than most. She smiled, “You're Rowan. Vivian told me about you.”

I tilted my head, “It’s nice to meet you, y’saera…”

Something flashed past the girl’s eyes before she sighed. The girl rolled her eyes, “Just Amerys, please. You’re not going to start bowing, are you?”

I immediately liked her. I smiled wryly.

“Shall I prostrate instead, your majesty?”

She scrunched up her nose at me and stuck out her tongue. I laughed. Compared to saer Halcyn, her mannerisms were un-princess like. She reminded me of the kids in my village, throwing mud at each other and laughing as they stuffed their faces with bugs under dead logs.

I looked her up and down, noticing the grass stains on her white dress and the mud caking her bare, calloused feet. I shook my head, “You're not what I was expecting. Not after I met your brother. You're a bit of a black sheep, aren't you?”

The little girl twirled, grinning as she showed off her tattered dress. “What gave it away?”

“The grasshopper leg stuck in your teeth.”

She blinked and plucked it out. Amerys threw it over her shoulder with a shrug, “Those aren’t as tasty as cicadas, anyway.”

I crossed my arms, “Oh? What’s your problem with grasshoppers?”

Amerys looked thoughtful, “Well, they’re crunchy. And biting down on the heads has a bark-like snap to it, but the bodies?” she stuck out her tongue in disgust. “Bitter. Tastes like grass.”

“You have good taste. I hate them too.”

“But you’ll still eat them, right?”

“Of course. Who’d pass up a good grasshopper on the ground?”

The y’saera released a sad sigh, “Humans.”

I nodded, “Humans.”

Grinning, Amerys extended her palms out towards me, reaching up to try and match my height. I high-fived her with both hands, my hands massive compared to hers. She turned around and led me down between the trees. Deep into the thick of the wood. Venti glanced back at me with narrowed eyes.

“One of you was bad enough. Was introducing you two a mistake?”

“Nonsense. She’s younger and not nearly as handsome. Amerys is her own person.”

Amerys glanced back at me, “Are you talking to Venti?”

“I am. Can’t hear her?”

“Nope. She usually uses tap-cant on me.”

I raised an eyebrow towards the bird, “Since when did you know sound code?”

“Since always. It’s not my fault you never studied it.”

“You could’ve told me. We could’ve had conversations earlier.”

“And hear you talk to me more than you already do? Eugh. No way. Hearing you mutter to yourself about music is enough. I don’t need it to be directed at me.”

Seeing us staring at each other, Amerys pouted. “What’s she saying? You guys are leaving me out of it!”

“It’s about Rowan. Nothing important.”

“She’s just praising me, is all.”

Venti rolled her eyes, amused as she turned away and closed her eyes. It was ironic that she’d told me to show respect just seconds ago. A talking bird using a princess’s head as a nest to nap in? The sight was straight out of a tavern joke. Shaking my head, I followed Amerys as she led me to a tree with veins of dirt running up the crags in the bark. Blinking, I watched as she peeled the dirt away to reveal the bright, orange-headed crawlers underneath.

I grinned.

“Termites,” I said. “A treasure.”

Amerys nodded seriously. “Shall we stuff our faces, sir Rowan?”

“We shall, miss Amerys,” I said, nodding and bowing, motioning towards the tree with a subservient smile. Amerys walked past me and plucked a plump one from the tree, still wriggling its many legs. She tossed it my way and I caught it.

“After you, sir immortal!”

I popped it in my mouth with a squelch between my teeth. I grinned.

Now this was breakfast.

“Elanah!”

Saer Halcyn roared from across the battlefield, a field of metal thorns beneath him. They took to the earth like eels to water, slithering out of the corrupted ground and back in, hurting the blight with every lash and curl. In front of him, the ground swelled and popped. A sea of black scarabs burst free from the swamp, covered in pulsating red veins, with snapping mandibles strong enough to chop bone.

Elanah flew towards him, blinking her left eye. Blood streamed down from a cut on her forehead. Pain. She swept her hands outwards, and a wide stream of black gas billowed out from her sleeves, enveloping the swarm.

They fell in melted droves. Dead.

Halcyn gave her a quick nod before shooting off, towards a giant snake of flesh and jagged spurs, swimming in the blood-tainted floods below. Elanah controlled her magic. Down, she willed herself to go, feeling the veins in her body heat up under the potion burn. Each blood vessel felt like it was filled with magma—shriveling, burning. Then healing again. A destructive cycle.

She flew over the battlefield panting, exhaustion filling every muscle. Old aches settled into her very bones.

She pressed on regardless.

Elanah retrieved a silver hairpin from her head. It was needle-like. Sharp and vicious. She waved it to the side and the needles multiplied, leaving dozens of copies floating in the air around her. The copies continued to increased. Hundreds. Thousands. Blue blasts of pure arcane rushed past her, cannon fire slamming into the floods. They shattered trees and bones, ripped at flesh and branches, and caused eruptions of blood, water, and pain.

Under the trees, a team of druids stood surrounded on all sides. Walls of wood staved off a horde of blighted monsters, all bloated and pulsating, full of pus that could melt steel at a touch. Elanah clenched her fist and the needles shot forward. Each found a target.

The creatures surrounding the druids fell twitching. Black spread through them until they fell off the branches and splashed into the water.

Hundreds died.

There were a hundred thousand more.

The druids gave her a nod as she passed, channeling their spells again. The corruption screeched and fled with every pulse of magic. Verdant greens and blues spread through the bloody stain left on the western landscape.

Elanah fell into a daze. The fighting was endless.

Four days of battle without end.

She was at her limit.

Her eyes fell for a moment, her flight faltering. She dropped. The water below her burst open. A blighted salamander the size of a house rushed out, mouth open, fangs glinting, ready to swallow her whole. Elanah raised her arms. Too late. Its jaw closed around her with a wet crunch.

Teeth punched through her metal skin. Elanah felt the bones snap. She felt the fangs sink into her stomach, tearing her innards to shreds as ribbons of blood exploded from her mouth.

The salamander dived back into the crimson water. Down, down, down.

Five meters in, its eyes melted off their sockets. Ten meters. Its skin peeled off its skull. Fifteen meters and its skeleton melted into poison tar that stained the waters black. It floated up.

And when it rose, it was dead.

Elanah crawled out of the corpse, crushing a pill she’d tucked into her cheek. Her bones snapped back into place. Her wounds healed. The blood she lost returned as if it was never shed. She flew up again, panting, feeling the exhaustion throb deep inside of her bones. It hurt. She was tired. She wanted to go home.

The old woman took a long breath to steady herself, her teeth gritted so hard it felt like they would shatter.

If they lost, there would be no home to return to.

The Blight Witch would not lose here.

Up ahead, she watched the corrupted trees morph, twisting, rushing towards a point. A spire exploded up from the water. It rose up to the clouds and bloomed. A gazerstalk looked down at her with its cruel mass of eyes, each glowing crimson, each gathering enough magic to shatter a city block.

It prepared to fire. Elanah extended an open palm towards it and closed her fist.

“Virulence.”

The veins running up its fleshy body turned black. They pulsed. The monster’s eyes exploded one by one, necrosis spreading from the roots and up. The gazerstalk shriveled and crashed into the water with a titanic boom that sent bloody water spraying up towards the sky.

It rained around her, staining her clothes red. Elanah closed her eyes.

One second.

When she opened them again, more spires were rising around her. More of the giant flowers and their thousand eyes, each gathering magic. The shadow of something massive swam beneath her. The sky filled with flying parasites that rushed out from corpses floating over the water. They blocked her and the army from the rift in the distance, high up in the sky. A tear in space. A portal to another realm.

Elanah looked up at them, her poisons turning the very waters black as night.

And then the sound of horns echoed down from the mountains.

The cannon fire flooding down from above tripled as gigantic shapes broke past the clouds. A fleet of airships. Two dozen cannons mounted on each. They broke the hordes, killing them by the hundreds with every shot. Riftwalkers jumped down from the ships, walking on air as if it were solid earth, shooting and slashing and killing faster than any soldier on the field. The whole front paused, turning, the battle's rhythm reaching a crescendo as a single thought descended:

Reinforcements were here.

The soldiers below her cheered, and Elanah felt herself relax. Digging her nails into her arm, she forced herself to stay awake. She flew alongside the ships. Deep into the heart of the blight, a legion of Silverplagues ravaging the forest below them.

The Shissavi below her celebrated as the tides turned. They thought of victory.

Elanah thought of home.