Flames were everywhere, burning every building, people being consumed by them, their screams muted and discordant. I walked through the wreckage, watching them all dying, not able to do anything. As if my hands were tied.
They were tied. Behind my back, bound tight. No one walked with me, but still I couldn’t pull my hands free from the bindings. I couldn’t force my feet to stray from the path, surrounded by the burning forms.
Ahead of me, there was only darkness and shadows. The flames faded away, and I was left utterly alone.
“When the hearth is claimed by cinder,”
The voice was unfamiliar, but it seemed to fill the world around me. I stepped fully into the dark, only to find myself standing on a pile of ash. I looked down at a crack beneath my feet to see bone among the ash. A s
