I watch the city burn, these dreams like ashes float away...
She had known it was only a matter of time before disaster struck again. This entire world was crossed by the stars and showed its nature on a regular basis. Lilitha wasn’t even surprised when the ground shook and the world rearranged itself again. She didn’t even blink when the voice of the gods rolled through her head, declaring a state of emergency. She just dug in her heels and took another walk through the glorious, haunted woods that had become her home.
She knew this place, every crack and crevice, had made her life here in the shadows of Beqanna’s broken kingdom. A land marred by fire and flooding, still recovering from devastation and the havoc the gods could wreak on their people when they put their minds to it. They’d worked together to ruin the forest, and the forest had survived. So had her people.
Even the ones that went unacknowledged.
She drew herself up to her full, substantial height, tossed her head to resettle her thick red mane against the dark black of her skin, and strode through the winter woods, on the lookout for anyone else who might want to stay, who might need protection. She had very little she could afford by way of such, not much more to offer than a little fire magic and the sheer force of her will. But that, at least, was substantial.
And if worse came to worst, she had her fire.
Gods or no gods, plague or no plague, Lilitha was home. She was staying in Taiga, and no one would drive her out of it. Whether Ruan lived or not, this was still the safe haven he’d fought so hard to make of it. If he couldn’t be here to ensure it stayed free even in crisis, she would do it herself.
...your voice I never heard, only silence.