Ashfall Hollow began under a sky laced with stormlight.  The wind had changed; Elena felt it first.  A shift in the scent of the earth, a low thrum beneath the soles of her boots as if something ancient stirred just beneath the surface.  Cathiana walked ahead, leading them through forgotten paths no map recorded. No one questioned her direction. Not even Austrus, whose usual cynicism had dulled to wary silence.  Delilah had tried once, asking where exactly they were headed.  Cathiana had simply turned her head, the golden ring in her eyes flaring like a second sunrise. "To where I ended. And where it all begins again." Ashfall Hollow lay in a crater vast enough to swallow a city.  Jagged cliffs rose around it lik

AN INTERMISSION WRITTEN FROM THE SWORD OF VENGEANCE The sky was tar-black and stormy, lit by flashes of bluish lightning that danced with thunder across the heavens.A torrential rainstorm broke loose, slamming into the earth, flooding the ground, forming puddles, ripples, and potholes in the sandy soil.Amidst the downpour stood men clad in Spartan-style helmets and Gothic silver armour, glinting under the fury of the storm. In their right hands, they held round, oval steel shields; in their left, dull bronze spears.They stood in tight battle formations as floodwaters pooled at their feet. Their hearts pounded beneath cold, heavy armour. Black capes flapped in the wind, soaked through, yet defiant.Before them, an unholy alliance of Demorticans, Dalmekuns, and the Eye of Urus surged forward in a dark swarm.At the army’s head, a middle-aged man emerged on horseback, silver armour gleaming. His black, silky hair stuck to his face, soaked and wild. He held his helm