AS AKSHARA CONTINUED to walk, the ground beneath her feet grew hard, and the stars seemed to shine brighter. A chill wind blew through her and almost knocked her over. But she pushed herself through it and continued on. For how long she no longer knew. She had lost track of all time and began to wonder if time even existed at all anymore. But the hard ground beneath her feet—stone—made her feel that something was wrong. Had she gone in the wrong direction? Was Tars’keli herself now redirecting her in some way?
There were never any answers to her questions. She thought of the words of the old Branian priestess: “I’m sure you know, child, that Aya is a broken world. In pieces as she is, she can no longer carry her own soul. Someone must be born to do that for her.”
She can no longer carry
