The wind howled like a wounded creature.
Kael stood at the edge of the ruined cliff face, his black cloak billowing behind him as shattered stone fell into the abyss below. The earth had moved, changed beyond the recognition of what the maps had formerly sworn. The sky itself had turned a sickly red, streaked through with black veins of energy that pulsed like infected sores. A storm was brewing above, not of water or flame, but of energy—raw, primitive, and broken.
Elira moved forward alongside him, her eyes open in amazement as she stared out across the landscape. "This. this wasn't here before," she breathed, her voice barely more than the wind.
"No," Kael replied. "Something broke when we disobeyed the Watcher. The world is bleeding."
