Hundreds of great black spires speared up, piercing the sky. Lightning raked them constantly, but the buildings were so far away, the booms barely reached them.
Buildings extended for miles in every direction, deep roads intertwining them. The streets remained free of soot despite the continuous ashen rain, looking as pristine as the day they were abandoned, millennia ago.
A colossal Wyrm floated lazily in the sky, high above. Parts of its body disappeared into the black clouds, revealing only sections of its tremendous length. Somehow, that only made the beast even scarier.
Desolate though the city was, Vir recognized the vestiges of greatness. Faded gold lined everything, contrasting against the deep black. All the mines in the Known World might not have enough gold to match the Imperium’s creations. The result was not ostentatious, but grand. Or it would have been, had the city not been a lifeless corpse.
Vir’s eyes returned to the Wyrm and the writhing mass it circled. It took him a few moments to register what he was actually looking at. It was a creature invisible to the eye.
When he registered its true nature, his knees shook, and he wailed in despair. Tears flowed and terror seized his muscles.
Why is that thing here!
“The Prana Swarm never leaves the central spire,” Ashani said quietly. “Else, life in this realm would have perished ages ago.”
The wave passed over him and he regained his senses… to a degree.
“The… central spire?” Vir asked, forcing his breaths to slow. Ashani pointed, and then he saw it. To Prana Vision, the tower that stood above them all was no tower at all. It was a writhing mass of pitch-black.
The gargantuan Swarm perfectly contoured the building, taking its shape, wrapping it in a layer of prana.
Its enclosure was absolute—beginning at the broad tower’s base and climbing high into the sky. There were no clouds above this building, for a vortex had formed. A perfectly circular gap through which the spire pierced. It was as if the clouds themselves fled from the Swarm. It had to have been at least three thousand paces in height.
“That’s no ordinary Swarm,” Vir whispered.
“No,” Ashani replied. “No, it isn’t. ’Tis the oldest of the Swarms. The most powerful.”
Vir didn’t doubt it. And yet, even millennia later, the Imperium’s building stood, seemingly impervious to the colossal being of pure energy. More than anything else, it was a testament to the level of Imperium advancement.
“In my realm, there’s a group who worships a Prana Swarm,” Vir said. “A very particular Swarm. I think I just found it.”
Ashani said nothing, instead looking off into the distance with melancholy.
“Lady Ashani, what happened here? What terrible curse turned Mahādi into this?” Vir asked, gesturing to the blighted scenery.
“Some things cannot be told. They must be shown. Felt. Would you like to see?”
“What would that entail?” Vir asked cautiously.
“A virtual projection of the events leading to the end. Brace yourself, for there are no happy endings here. No forever afters. Only tragedy, suffering, and death. It is a tale of dazzling dreams and crippling regret. It is our story.”
Vir made his resolution.
“Show me.”
31
THE STORY OF US (PART ONE)
Vir thought he’d prepared himself for what was to come, but he hadn’t. How could he?
Ashani pressed her fingers against the sides of Vir’s head, and like a drop falling on a still mirror pond, the world rippled outward. Where the ripple touched, Ash ceased to exist, restored to its former glory. The placement of the buildings and the streets remained the same, while everything else changed.
Gone were the dark storms and the ever-falling ash. Sinister black buildings now shone a fabulous blue-white, their dull gold emblazons shining brightly under vast blue skies and a dazzling sun.
“Allow me to take you to a time of ages past. To a time of hope and wonder. Of monumental accomplishment, when the Prime Imperium spanned the world. Before the Fall and the end of all things.”
The Age of Gods, Vir thought with growing excitement. I’m witnessing life as it was in the Age of Gods! Joyous sounds of life erupted, filling the crisp, clean air.
The same place. A different time.
Vir’s mouth hung open, and he pointed to the sky. Above the half dozen Vimana that moved lazily through the skies above the city.
There, high up, was a sphere. A bright, glowing sphere. It wasn’t the sun.
“The moon?” Ashani asked. “What of it?”
“What is it?” Vir asked, panic growing in his voice. While large in the sky, it felt different to his eyes. It was far. Impossibly, vastly far. Like it was a part of the sky itself.
“The moon is a fixture of the sky. ’Tis natural…”
“Ashani, there is no moon where I come from. It’s gone. Completely gone.”
“Truly?” Ashani said with a concerned expression. “’Tis hard to fathom. Though, the fate of my people is equally difficult to comprehend.”
Vir stood transfixed at this moon, his mind going in circles. What was it? The sun was said to be the seat of Adinat’s power. Was the moon a representation of another god? Perhaps one that was no longer in power?
“Um, Lady Ashani? Did your people put the moon up there, by any chance? Or maybe the sun?”
Ashani stared at Vir for a long moment, then burst out in a fit of giggles. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she was forced to wipe them away as Vir stood there awkwardly scratching his chin.
“My apologies!” she said at last. “I have not laughed like this since… Well, since before the fall. I’ve been rude.”
“No, it’s quite alright,” Vir said in embarrassment.
“We did not put the sun in the sky, no. Nor the moon. My people’s powers were vast, but we were not gods. The sun and the moon have always been.”
An avian beast zoomed by before Vir could reply, forcing him to duck, but he was too late.
Two beasts hit him… and passed right through.
“This is but a simulation of the world as it was millennia ago,” Ashani said. “You have nothing to fear.”
She brought the world to a halt. The beasts froze, allowing Vir to look at them. Allowing him to distract himself from the mind-bending concept of a moon.
Made entirely of Ash prana, they resembled far more elegant Ash’va, with longer, thinner heads and longer legs.
They were tethered to a beautiful chariot covered in golden patterns. Prana overlaid the actual gold, forming artful patterns that seamlessly blended inscriptions with prana. Its twin wheels left behind trails of Fire Affinity prana in the air, and a golden dome hovered above the chariot, seemingly unconnected.
Commanding the chariot was a man wearing the most gold Vir had ever seen on any living being. From gemstone rings to bangles and bracers, necklaces, and even his armor that contoured his perfect abs, everything was bejeweled and gilded. Not even kings looked so impressive.
An enormous headdress flared out behind him, forming a circle of gold. An impressive black mustache decorated his bronze skin that lacked a single blemish.
Ashani resumed the simulation, and the chariot sped forth, disappearing in the distance.
It wasn’t the only one. The skies were dotted with such vehicles, speeding this way and that in a maze of lanes that crisscrossed above Mahādi.
“Follow me,” Ashani said, stepping off the tall building and falling elegantly to the surface of a nearby street.