I forfeited all awareness of time and location in that toxic wasteland, no longer sure why we were there or what Nida thought we could do at this point to roll back catastrophe.
The thunder in my head exhausted me with demands for obedience, and at some point my waking mind fell into reverie.
I was lost again in the flooded labyrinth under Alexandria, shouldering my terrible burden to her final destination.
There was an eerie light in the darkness ahead, a purpurate glow from a secret sepulcher.
I dropped my guttering torch into the oily seawater lapping at my legs, to get a tighter grip on the insensible child I was carrying.
In that hidden chamber, I offered her up as sacrifice.
My lord promised vengeance against the cabal for banishing me.
Was its intonation coming from the shadows in that remembered vault, the glowing violet blade I'd forged, or the defiled wheel that was carrying Nida and I into the void?