Teramyn arrived at the edge of the ruins several driev before the reinforcements he had sent for. He had expected as much and was relieved to have time to scry the area without the pollution of other fen lingering. He stood alone on the outskirts of a once-grand city that was now only recognizable by it’s location and a single, crumbling spire in the distance that looked ready to fall at a moments notice. His driver had gone around the back of the tevvy to unpack themself a ration and he left them to it. They deserved the rest after the trip they’d driven.


    Teramyn bent to remove his shoes, supposedly for a closer connection to the Zheo through the soles of his feet but maybe also because he''d been crammed in that tevvy in his travel boots for too long. He missed his palace shoes and the comforts of home. The smooth black sands were icy against his skin but still oh so welcome. He closed his eyes and blew out a long breath, feeling his fen connect from head to toe with the ground beneath his feet. He took a deep breath in, filling his chest and his belly and then he looked with his mind.


    He let his fen reach out like winding, graceful tendrils, spreading like vines or veins in their search for anything of interest. He continued to breathe, rhythmic and devoted, until it pleased the gods. Until he began to


    see with his mind.


    The girl was not there, he knew. It would have been convenient, yes, but far more than he could ask of the gods, favor could only get you so far. She had been there though, he could feel it, the lingering malaise of the Vott in the natural fen channels. There was something else too, something he didn’t recognize, curling in around the traces of the Vott. Strangely, it almost seemed like this other presence was choking out the Vott fen. He took a deep breath, trying to sort it out in his mind. It was something inviting, soft and warm and it drew him in immediately when he                               focussed on it.


    Teramyn caught himself when he realized he was being drawn into the city, taking step after step through the darkened sands. He stopped and turned to look back at the tevvy parked in the distance, he hadn’t meant to go so far, just stretch his legs and get a read on the girl. He was sure of it now, anyway, so he turned and began to trudge back toward the TVE.


    He felt the sand shift and give way beneath him as he went. He tipped his head back and looked up into the dark sky. Dhelarly was transiting the other side of the world and Ahraan reflected only enough light to bathe the landscape in soft blue glow. There was a deep orange on the horizon as Sol crept ever closer. Any driev now it would peek it''s bright, hot, face over the edge of their edge of the world and bathe them in the loving glow of light and warmth.


    He blinked once, recognizing the swell of emotion building in his center in a fraction of a tes. It wasn’t uncommon for a vision to bring him to the ground so it was with little surprise that his hands found the same grainy dark sands that his feet had. When his driver came back around the front of the tevvy they would see him on his hands and knees in the sand surrounded by rubble and remnants of a time long ago. The sand fell away from his hands and feet and then so did the world in his mind.


    A rush of energy blew past him and Teramyn turned to see the echoes of a glittering city rising behind him. The faces and roofs of a buildings twinkled back at him under the radiant light of Sol. The street was no longer filled with sand and he found himself on a manicured pathway that had a bit of bounce to it. Buildings with gorgeous colored glass fronts reached up around him. Wisps of people, long gone, echoed around him, forming ghostly apparitions lingering in the light.


    A sudden beam, brighter than anything else, shot straight up into the cosmos from the city center. He could feel the heat from it on his skin, radiating out with such immense energy. The buildings rushed by and then he was there, at the heart of the city, at the convergence marker.


    It was beautiful, exquisite, and intact. The smooth surface of the platform rose up just a step above the ground surrounding it. There were tall, slim, ornately carved pillars standing evenly spaced around the perimeter of the round dais. The blinding light stayed within the confines of those pillars as he looked on in awe.Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.


    People had gathered around, he could see the whispers of them fade in and out, unaware of him there.


    Just as suddenly as it had come the light was gone. It left behind a small, pale figure at the center of the enormous marker. Teramyn squinted, trying to get a better look but the brightness of the light that had delivered the figure still left him partly blinded. He felt an almost suffocating wave of energy roll over him, spilling out from the figure at the center and he knew immediately that this wasn’t a vision of the ivellacht vail’le. This was someone different.


    And then another rush swept over him, tearing him away from the figure on the platform. This one he recognized as the heavy, oppressive feeling of the Vott. Like a thick blanket rolling over the scene, it’s darkness snuffed out the vision as it devoured everything, pulling the light and the memory of times long gone with it.


    He blinked through the tears that had gathered in his eyes and found himself staring directly down into the sand. The vision still swirled around in his mind making it difficult to pick out what was now and what was then. He took a deep long, deep, breath and focussed on his hands, half buried where they held him up, to ground himself. He felt the cold granules against his skin and reminded himself of where he was. What he was doing.


    He looked up, out, and there was the tevvy, parked right where it had been. He heaved himself back to his feet, joints whining at him as he rose from the sands.


    He made his way back to the tevvy slowly, one step at a time and he was reminded that there was no remedy for time. His body ached, both from the long ride and from so many visions in such a short time.


    They had been coming in like clockwork. Every time he closed his eyes to rest he was met with driev’ long past painted across the backs of his eyelids. Bright streaks across his mind’s eye showed him destruction, past and future, and at the heart of it all, it always led back to the ivellacht vail’le


    He was having a hard time feeling present.


    He placed a hand on the still-warm front of the tevvy when he finally made it back. It was smooth and pleasant to run his hand along as he walked around to the back of it. The metal of the machine held within it the warmth of the journey and he was just as drawn to it as anyone.


    When he made it around the back he found his driver leaned against the rear of the machine. There was a crumpled ration pack set neatly beside them on a lip that jutted out from the smooth exterior. Beside it sat another, unopened, pack.


    They jumped to attention as Teramyn came around but he waved them down. There was no use for formalities in their setting, exhausted as they both were. They were eides and eides from anywhere and as far as Teramyn could tell they were the only people present in the scar of a city. They were quick however to offer him the other ration pack and he took it with thanks. His bones dictated that he take a seat in the cold sands rather than lean against the warm tevvy while he punched a hole into the pack with the straw.


    They sat in silence as Teramyn drained his ration. He watched as the others’ eyelids drooped little by little until they caught themselves, jumping and shaking their head a few times to clear the fog. Once he’d finished his pack, crumpling it in his hand out of habit the two of them quickly set about laying out their meager camp for the time being. Any heat the driev had to offer had quickly faded but the warmth of Sol had already started to spill over onto the land, raising the temperatures considerably. Still, he was happy to climb into his insulated bedroll inside the tiny makeshift cabin in the back of the tevvy.


    That nente he dreamt of strange shapes and colors flickering across his mind, nonsensical and disorienting. It was so vivid he could feel the water lapping at his feet, dark, dark, water and when he looked down there was the double moons shining brightly back at him from the waters surface. They began to unstack and circle each other instead, around and around and then the luminous bodies shifted and became waterfae, singing their ethereal songs.


    When he looked up he saw a skyline, stark and distinct against the horizon. He’d only been a handful of times through the soltzet of his life, mostly during his schooling, but it was a recognizable skyline.


    When he woke the next drievette he eagerly recorded his dreams in the most excruciating detail he could recall. As soon as he was done he went to the long range communication box mounted to the ceiling between the front two seats and sent an eager update to the arriving support he’d requested.


    They were heading to Temal.