She didn’t even notice the thick column of black smoke coming up from the line of darkness. It rose high above the ground and seemed to come to a barrier in the clouds, where it spread out in all directions, creating a dark canopy of smoke over everything. She had not noticed how deliberately awful this was until this very moment. Until this climactic moment, when the elation of pure flight was at its peak in her being.
You have to help us, said Dawn. Her voice was weak and unconvincing. Assa thought of it as a pathetic attempt at convincing her of the truth of their situation. But Assa didn’t need Dawn’s voice to tell her. For the first time, she noticed that the air around her was flecked with dark particles. Tiny, but definitely there. How could she have been so blind to it? The fire t
