The short distance of Keshiema's fall surprised her, but a soft pillow of sand cushioned her clumsy landing. Dusting herself off, she started towards the mysterious light.

  The sunlight through the portion of collapsed ceiling helped light the cave for only a few hundred feet. After a couple of minutes, Keshiema found herself immersed in darkness. Though the glow grew brighter the farther into the cave Keshiema traversed, it did nothing to illuminate her path. Even her astounding night vision did little to aid her in the pitch-black environment. Feeling her way through the rocky void, she found herself in front of the light’s source.

  A large magenta crystal pillar stood before her, the soft glow radiating from the crystal barely lighting the space around it. The impossibility of seeing such a dim light from so far away was not lost on her.

  Something dark hid beneath the hazy surface. Trying to get a better view, Keshiema pressed her hands and face against it. A flash of light threw her back and the entire cavern lit up. Crystals clung to the ceiling and walls, emitting the same eerie glow as the large pillar, washing the world around her in a bath of fuchsia.

  The large crystal brightened drastically, its color fading away to leave it clear, and bright enough to sting her eyes.

  Now able to clearly see the once shrouded object inside the crystal, she fell to her knees. A pregnant woman with dark skin and deep burgundy hair slept, suspended within. Tears streamed down Keshiema’s face when she finally understood what áeras’s words meant.

  She approached the crystal in agonizing realization. “You’re in a hard place. You could have helped me but now you’re stuck.” Pounding the crystal with her fist, her chest tightened, and her stomach sank. Keshiema cried freely, her colors darkening to match the shadows in the tunnel behind her. “They’re gonna die! I’m gonna die!” In the pits of hopeless despair, Keshiema leaned her back against the cold crystal.

  With an aching heart, her thoughts wandered, resting on her friends and allies. “I wonder if they’ll try to fight him off themselves.” Her star shined brightly, her eyes taking on the same glow, her aura radiating from her skin. She could almost feel the last bone crushing impact into the hard asphalt. Her heart nearly stopped as the vision took her over completely.

  Adramelech's prophet stole the memories from Keshiema's still warm corpse, digging deep to find the path Dásos had shown her. Taking up her body like a ragdoll, he had mages teleport him to the crumbling temple made sanctuary just as the sun crested over the Cascades.

  Kicking in the door, Adramelech burst into the temple, carelessly dragging Keshiema's lifeless body and tossing her on the floor in front of them.

  Eyes glowing like flames, Pyro summoned twin blades of fire, attacking the king with a gutteral scream. Stolas froze in place, staring at his sister's mutilated body in disbelief. Hearing the door shatter from the next room, Gaap rushed in, bow drawn and upon seeing the situation, fired arrows in rapid succession.

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  Asmoday, hot on Gaap's heels, summoned his snakes, with Merihim close behind bringing forth a dark mist filled with plague. Eurynome rushed in from outside, sword drawn, to attack Adramelech from the rear.

  Dásos, upon seeing Keshiema, gently took her husk from the cold cobblestone floor. In a puff of green aura he disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a few leaves falling slowly. He took her body to Snow Lily, who was with Lunara and Lumina, all three women weeping over the bodies of Ipos and Ayperos.

  Cresil and Hiro, guarding the med room door, burst in upon hearing Snow Lily’s scream. Cresil tensed, his aura already starting to overflow as sizzling tears streamed from his bright glowing green eyes. With no time to spare, Dásos dropped Keshiema's body, grabbed Snow Lily, teleporting as far as he could in his weakened state.

  He managed to make it to Mia Davis's base deep in the hills Northeast of Denim. From there they watched in horror as a mushroom cloud erupted south of the jumbled city. Hiding his own pain, he held Snow Lily as she collapsed, her children taken from her once again, and this time permanently.

  Dásos pushed Snow Lily away, his aura pulsing brightly around him. Leaving her with the humans, he teleported back to the broken temple. Adramelech roared in anger at his youngest son. Pinned against the wall, surrounded by the fallen, scorched bodies of his fellow princes, Stolas screamed at his father to kill him, for he had nothing left to live for. The Beast crushed Stolas's skull with his free hand, killing him instantly and throwing his body aside.

  Dásos tackled the king to ground, placing a hand on his throat. The demon king, nothing compared to a full blooded Primordial, struggled to breathe under Dásos's grip. A flurry of turquoise aura rushed from Adramelech's body, dissipating into the air. With the aura finally depleted, the king’s body shriveled and crumbled into dust.

  Keshiema stood facing the giant quartz, her eyes still aglow. When she placed a hand upon the crystal cage, ?ther's eyes shot open. Slowed by the viscous liquid within her prison, ?ther reached out, resting her hand upon the inner wall of the cage in the same place Keshiema held hers. The dark pools of midnight blue, each holding a small speck of shimmering white, focused on Keshiema's glowing eyes.

  The glow consuming Keshiema's eyes faded as did the haunting vision. Regaining her grip on reality, she focused on ?ther who looked at her with concern. "Young one, descendant of Fotiá, do you understand what you have seen?"

  The hypnotic voice ringing in Keshiema's still cloudy mind soothed her. She shook her head, unable to fully form the words to reply. "Fate has shared with you the future that will come to pass should you fail in Ethera."

  Still groggy, Keshiema did her best to focus. “I still have a chance though?”

  ?ther smiled kindly. "All is not lost. Tell me what you need, and I will do everything in my power to return you to your destined path."

  Pressing her hand harder against the smooth surface of the crystal, Keshiema silently rejoiced at the words. “My friends, Ipos and Ayperos, their spirits are stuck here. I need to find them.”

  The quartz among the walls and ceiling dimmed drastically. In the same moment, ?ther's eyes dimmed to a muted pale blue. When her eyes returned to normal and the cavern lit up once more, ?ther spoke again. "You are in luck, young one, You’re friends are together. I can send you to them, but your time is running out. You must hurry to awaken them before they fade forever."

  Relief washed over Keshiema. “I understand. Please, I need to help them.”

  "Place your forehead against my cage." ?ther wasted no time and Keshiema listened without hesitation. When ?ther placed her forehead in the same spot Keshiema rested hers, Keshiema’s body became heavy and tired. "Don’t fight it. Go into the darkness head first, and it shall take you where you need to be." The words echoed in Keshiema's mind as the world faded away. Her senses disappeared and her body became as light as feather.