A fiery burning sensation filled her veins, sprouting from where Ashen’s gem lay embedded in her scales, and she freezes in place, unable to move as the sensation starts to spread. The fire traveled down every limb, blooming into a heat shes never experienced prior, the sensation pouring into her core and leaving her keeled over on the ground like a wet sack.

 

She lays on her knees, one arm supporting her body weight and the other clutching her chest as she gasps for air, seemingly every nerve in her body alighting with an ungodly amount of pain, tears involuntarily falling down her face as her maw hangs agape in a silent scream. The fighting around her did not cease, and without her realizing, finley were beginning to step right through her, as if she was not there to begin with. 

 

A white glow that starts from the center of her chest,  begins to slowly consume her form, emanating from her scales and growing brighter by the second. The burning hot sensation that was filling her body and nearly boiling her from the inside out, dissolves into thin air, causing her body to recoil from the sudden change with an icy shock.

 

 Her eyes shoot open with a sudden sharp inhale after a few seconds, and her form floods with a sudden overwhelming amount of mana. The life giving energy rushes into her body like a tidal wave, the force puppeting her body and physically dragging her backwards, actively phasing through the sea of bodies like a specter, and rising into the air with her wings spread. 

 

Vortea feels like a spectator in her own body, her limbs moving without her doing, wings spread, but not flapping despite being airborne. Power radiates off of her like a deity, and her body becomes corporeal once again in midair. Gathering her composure once again, the Dual Draken opens her eyes fully, and fights to control the hurricanes worth of raw power swirling through her body, feeling her very being hum with the barely controlled mana. 

 

Surveying the ground beneath her, she sees the crowd of Void-Touched and Spirits Grove fighters halt in their steps, staring at the Draken glowing with pure white light with maws dropped. 

Ashen, sliding into the passengers seat in Vortea’s mind, assists the Draken in manipulating the summoned mana inside of their body, and summons a large spiked ball of light, wisps of Creation aura flying off of the surface as is sits between the palms of the Dual.

 

 Their arms move in synchronicity, swirling the ball of burning white light between their claws, and proceed to projectile launch it into the crowd below, a barely contained scream erupting from behind Vortea’s clenched jaw as she sees the fear on the fighters faces as they, and the Void-Touched intermingled with them, are evaporated in the resulting blast upon impact.

 

 Tears fall from Vortea’s eyes as the light evaporates, and the once bustling ground beneath her reveals itself as empty. Pure white and pitch black glittering dust sitting in piles is the only thing left of the mass of finley that were tangled under her. A choked sob escapes her mouth, but is quickly cut off by Ashen turning their shared body around, charging another attack up and blasting the vibrating sphere into another crowd of approaching Void-Touched, vaporizing them inside of its purifying blast

 

Ashen knew how much this hurt their host, how heartbroken and panicked Vortea felt at losing control of the magic, having Ashen pilot her body so effortlessly…but the fight was dragging on too long. Innocent life had to be sacrificed for the greater good, to take out the enemy, to balance the forces.

Vortea would have to forgive them for what they have decided needs done.

 

A tremendous roar echos out across the raging battlefield, and from the deep forest, a black cloud of mist erupts from above the treetops. A figure rises above the cloud of inky mist, a pitch black aura surrounding them, as if the Void itself had manifested in the bright blue sky suddenly. 

 

Ashen turns their head towards the sudden commotion, and a fiery rage surges through their shared body. Vortea, while not exactly in control at the moment. was however in full sync with the others emotions. Rage filled their form, an ancient grudge resurfacing upon sighting Hollow, and settles like a blazing coal in their core. They turn to face the cause behind the chaos, and both Sents lock eyes.

 

Both Draken were hovering completely still, sounds of battle blazing underneath their feet without pause as the fated opposites sized one another up. Ashen positioned their shared body into a defensive stance above Spirits Grove, flaring the large leathery wings Vortea sported into an impressive threat display. As if invited, Hollow flashed over in front of the other, snarling wordlessly as he reels back to lay the first strike.

 

Suddenly thrusting Vortea into the front seat yet again, Ashen quickly scoots to the passengers seat mentally for Vortea and her much more advanced fighting skills to take over. The Draken instinctively raises her bracer-clad arm up and blocks the downwards strike with a grimace on her own muzzle as the armor absorbs much of the impact the other maliciously laid into the heavy blow.

 

Wordless agression filled strikes are exchanged between the two, flashes of white and black mana particles flying off both figures in pulsing waves as vicious blows are exchanged. Vortea was fighting for her life, every blow she lands on Hollow owing thanks to the relentless months of training shes been through. Aching muscles faded away quickly as Ashen passively refreshes and repairs the strain with fresh mana, empowering each strike Vortea lands with extra oomph.

 

The air itself around them hummed with the raw intensity of their opposing powers, crackling with the raw power of untapped Creation and Void as strikes were exchanged between them. Snarls and thuds filled the sky as the physical fight continued to ramp up from simple strikes, to magically charged attacks that nearly knock the other out of the sky.

 

Every movement Vortea made, she could feel Ashen’s actions bleed more and more into her own, blending with her seamlessly instead of just simply assisting. Streams of Creation magic spiraled around her as she danced around the Void-Sents blows, raw mana shaping into radiant arcs of pure power that danced in her wake. Her quickly whitening golden eyes burned with focus, locking onto Hollow, who floated across from her, darting around her attacks like an ink covered demon.

 

The centralized flood of opposing mana from both Sents auras makes an impressive silhouette against the bright blue sky around them, blinding flashes of white and black mana from each attack illuminating the sky and land below.

 Clouds start to quickly build on the horizon as a side effect of their magic, quickly moving in and surrounding the town as a reaction to the excess mana and growing darker in response as more charges feed the forming storm. The fighters on both sides below them seem to be overtaken by a frenzy as an unintended reaction to the incoming tempest, driven by an unseen force to attack harder and more viciously. 

 

Vortea quickly summons a large pulsing ball of Creation magic between her palms, pulling on her own advanced magic and fills the sphere with several casts of Ball Lightning, the electrical spheres bouncing around inside the blinding bright ball of white mana frantically. She twirls around in midair, and hard sends the orb into an oncoming Hollow’s face, which caused the Void-Sent to shriek in pain as it explodes, and he temporarily looses height as his wings lock up in a free fall.

 

Hollow recovers a few seconds later however, though his outfit was noticably singed, and even a bit aflame in the back from one the many charged balls of lightning contained within the exploding attack. His eyes lock onto Vortea’s own once again, their gaze brimming with hatred filled malice, and he begins to charge up his own retaliatory attack.

 

He spreads his own wings wide, a vast chasm of energized nothingness unfolding before him as the Void's aura seemed to consume the ambient light around them, and he flashes upwards, quickly closing the distance between them as he slashes at Vortea’s chest.

But Vortea was faster than he anticipated. She twists in midair, and with a burst of Creation magic, conjures a smooth bubblelike shield of gleaming white quartz crystal that shimmers into existence between them.

 

 Hollow’s claws meet the smooth surface and scrape across its surface with a deafening screech, claws dripping with goopy Void Essence that begins to eat through the barrier in an instant, dissolving the crystal into glittering black dust wherever it touches.

 

Vortea retaliated in kind, her wings snapping back as she hurls herself forward, summoning a storm of raw Lightning magic that crackles around her claws like a plasma coil. She swipes at Hollow’s exposed side, her strikes fueled by her dogged determination to defeat him, combined with Ashen’s fury.

 

 As her claws connect, vibrant bolts of electricity explode from the point of contact where her claws meet purchase above his hip, ripping a scream from both Draken. One of pain and surprise from Hollow, and one of rage and effort from Vortea, as she pours an amount of mana into the attack that would've normally left her fried and on deaths door if it was not for Ashen’s support.

 

But the Voids Bearer was insatiable. Hollow grunts low in his throat, his wings beating heavily as he rebounds from the blow to his side. Darkness coils around him protectively like a serpent, and with one arm holding his burnt side, unleashes a savage roar, and uses his free claw to release a wave of Void magic that twists the space between him and Vortea, warping the immediate area into a chaotic whirlpool of nothingness. 

 

Vortea was caught in the distortion, her form rippling as the Void sought to unravel and erase her body from existence. A scream bubbles up in her throat as she feels the Void mana grabbing, ripping at every exposed part of her body in a race to obliterate. The air was stolen from her lungs at the impact of the magic, and the animalistic instincts in her claw to the surface as she fights the urge to flee from the pain and save herself.

 

Shoving her base urges aside, drawing from the core of her very being as the Void consumes her. Vortea calls upon the essence of Creation hosted within herself, forcing all the mana she could possibly muster from deep from inside Ashen's reserves and brings it to the surface. Her scales shimmer and crackle with the potential of all things- with all the power of life, a radiant beacon of pure white crystalline light against the all consuming darkness. 

 

With a thunderous bellow, she releases the barely contained and springloaded mana with an explosive lunge forward. It was now or never, everything she had was riding on this last hurrah, and she was determined to take Hollow DOWN. Her wings beat down powerfully, propelling her body forward harder, faster, straight into the inky depths of the Void in front of her rival.

 

Hollow saw it coming though, his eyes narrowing as the Dual Draken tore through the thick darkness spewing from his body. With a flick of his tail and a clench of his claws, the Void around him expanded, a maw of nothingness opening even wider to devour his fated opponent. But this time was different.

 

 The Void did not devour her as Hollow planned, throwing her body and soul into the abyss forever. Instead, it imploded upon meeting the extraordinarily powerful blast of mana Vortea thrust forward using her body as the conduit. The burst of Creation magic was so powerful that it caused the clouds swarming above the two Draken to visibly rebound with the force of the impact. Vortea’s body meeting the resistance of the Void billowed with blinding light, filling the summoned Void in the airspace with a brilliance so pure that it immediately burned away, and instantly blinded anybody that was unfortunate enough to look up at the battle. 

 

With the Voidfield burned away, and Hollow temporarily blinded from the radiant flash emitted by her body, she surged forward with a final beat of her wings and closed the final distance between her and Hollow that she wasnt able to get through previously. Her claws physically crack from wielding the highest concentration of Creation mana in the moment, and as she reached Hollow, she slashes at his chest, hooking her claws into the others flesh with a sickly crunch, and latching on as she angles her wings into formation for a dive, positioning the blinded Draken beneath her to absorb the impact.

 

Hollow roars in fury and anguish, his wings flailing wildly as he recoils at the violent impact of Vortea’s body colliding into his and forcing them both down towards the earth. His Void magic lashes out at the Duals form but it was weaker now and it ends up deflecting off of her body, destabilized by Vortea’s continuous attack and burning aura. 

 

Vortea presses the advantage, her entire form glowing even brighter and hotter as she amps up the channeled Creation magic through every fiber of her body to its breaking point, forcing the previous limits even further. Her body started to seemingly physically crack like glass from the stress of conducting a powerful magic not her own, but still, she pushes on.

 

She was as a living Sun, blindingly glorious in her fast paced descent to the ground below, her light glowing hotter and brighter as she gets closer to impact, as she begins to lose control of her channeling, felt it start to consume HER, and not just the Void beneath her claws.

 

For a moment, the sky was filled with both the intense light of Creation and the abyssal scraps of Void that hadn't been burned away yet, the two forces locked in a fervent battle for supremacy, with Creation having Void in a chokehold. Time seemed to stand still as they collided with the earth in the center of town, the ground trembling under the weight of their clash.

 

As the dust settles around the small crater made from the collision, Hollow lays on the ground stunned from the impact with the wind solidly knocked out of him, and Vortea kneeling on top of him. She could feel her body starting to give up on her, the mortal limits of her body being pushed to the extremes due to not fully being taken over by Ashen, and she knew the time to act was now.

 

Vortea knew she had to eliminate the problem beneath her in one way or another, so she reaches down into the depths of her core, drawing energy from the life and ground beneath her as additional fuel, and blasts Hollow head on with a beam of concentrated Creation energy, aiming the beam at his Keystone for maximum impact. 

 

The Void-Sent screams in pain as the attack saps energy from the gem between his horns, causing him to writhe on the ground below in agony as if he was being boiled alive. The pure white continuous blast burns away every scrap of Void afflicted flesh it lands on like a hot knife through butter, and unable to fight the blast any longer, his physical body and the Keystones essence evaporates into a hovering cloud of thick black smoke.

 

Vorteas vision began swirling, black creeping in the corners of her sight like a threatening cloak, and she knew she didnt have long left to finish Hollow off. Quickly glancing around her, she seen a large Blessed net weight that had been severed from the main net and thrown aside in the large struggle in town, and wearily walks over to grab it. 

 

She knew it would only be a short amount of time before Hollow started to reform again, and she only had one chance to put him away…for she feared for her own death if she had to fight again in this state. 

Grasping the metal ball in both of her hands, the Create-Sents host closes her eyes, and grinds her rear claws into the ground for support.

 

Spreading her wings wide, she tilts her head up towards the sky  and pulls upon the mana-charged fibers within her body for a final time. She feels the exhaustion hit her like a train as the vibrantly luminant non-physical cracks on her front claws and across her body start to widen and illuminate threateningly as she charges up a finishing attack, lifting the metal net weight above her head to channel the mana through.

 

Massive wisps of white mana fly from her body into the air surrounding her and the orb above her, and zip over around Hollow’s fleeing essence. They swirl in tight circles around the heavy cloud of Void, going faster and faster as more wisps join the bait ball of energy, generating a whirlwind of force that begins to blow back the trampled grass around the town square and the remains of the destroyed town buildings like toys. 

Vortea remains rooted in place where she stands, sweat pouring off her scales like rivers as she closes her eyes tighter, concentrates harder, and grips the almost glowing hot net weight like it is her lifeline.

 

The whirlwind orb spirals faster, and faster, and begins to burn brighter the longer the cast goes on, nearly matching Vortea in luminosity. Finally, the orb reaches a complete and solid state of light, and Vortea shakily lowers her arms from above her head, grips the orb in one hand, reels back to where she is standing solidly on one leg, and hurls the glowing hot net weight full speed into the sphere of light in front of her.

Vortea drops to her knees as soon as she makes the throw, stars overtaking her vision as she drops into unconsciousness and falls forward like a dead body. The radiant glow of Creation energy starts to dissipate from her body with the large cracks being the last to fade, and she can only hope her aim hit true as her mind fades to nothing like a heavy velvet blanket was being pulled over her.

Upon impact, a massive explosion resounds out from the net weight successfully capturing Hollows spiritual essence, the Creation magic surrounding his energy locking him into the sphere securely and branding it with the symbol of Void. The very sky above the battlefield seemed to heave at the implosion of pure force released by the orb, and the storm clouds lingering above like a dark cloak were thrown away like a discarded blanket as the mana shot skyward like a laser.

The energy released from the sealing act itself was like the birth of a star, a skyward eruption of blinding light and energy of both Creation and Void that tore through the battlefield. The physical aspect of the shockwave rips through the immediate area of the town, traveling through a roughly five mile radius of the woods, fields, and open prairie of Spirits Grove at speeds faster than any living being could possibly comprehend, disintegrating any damaged building in the town, throwing earth through the air near the crater where Hollow was sealed, and sending shockwaves of pure white light streaked with hints of pitch black that raced through the sky.

The energy aspect of the shockwave made its way around the entire planet, erasing any presence of Void essence corrupting the surface. Any Void-Touched or Voidstructs left on the surface to terrorize in Hollow’s absence, were vaporized into a fine black powder that settles into the soil where they took their final steps. Even the handful of hidden away Create-Touched were erased, their energy erased into powdery white dust.

  As soon as the force touches any being not corrupted by Void, it hits them like a full speed train, knocking them onto the ground and immediately rendering them unconscious. Both finley and animals seem to be affected by the wave knocking them out, though places further away from the impact site dealt with much shorter recovery times than those within a close radius to the final battle.

Most finley and animals  were asleep only a short while, a day at most in the longest cases. They were confused and dazed as to what exactly happened, and many woke up with quite a doozy of a headache to couple with their confusion. Despite widespread reports of sudden unconsciousness, nobody could figure out what happened…so they picked up where they left off, and made extra offerings to the spirits and said prayers to the Circles in case what happened was caused by one of them.

As quickly as the blast came, it made its expedient exit from Spirits Grove, and the aftermath of such a massive amount of Creation mana being released in the immediate vicinity caused a rather beautiful side effect. Everywhere in a several mile radius of the town  that had first exposure to the shockwave of magic began to explode with new life and greenery, the signs of battle wrought destruction quickly fading under the carpet of grass and flowers that overtook trampled, muddy ground. 

Bodies of the fallen fighters rapidly decayed into dark, rich soil, covering the macabre scene left by war, buildings that were half torn down by rampaging warriors began sporting ivys and even fast growing bushes and young trees inside their wreckage. Mosses, flowers, and long prairie grasses appeared and quickly grew in, and by the time the magic effect disappeared, Spirits Grove simply looked as if it was a long abandoned town, left for nature to reclaim. 

All around the Outskirts, and in the wide open fields around Spirits Grove in a five or six mile radius lie strange green lumps, scattered all over the ground in strange and non natural patterns. Children that had been well hidden by their parents and spared from meeting a similarly wicked end as their caregivers, were knocked unconscious by the shockwave, and covered in lush greenery like the rest of the war-torn town….almost like a protective blanket. The few adults that escaped the claws of death met a similar fate as the surviving children. Protective vines and greenery sheltered them all  from view, hid them from danger, and kept them safe for the time being. 

The last note of the Creation magic taking hold of the town happened in the center, where the epicenter lie. A tiny sapling, no larger than a few inches, springs up next to Vortea’s limp claw, a faint light green glow surrounding it for a few seconds before it fades away.

Unbeknownst to the remaining residents of Spirits Grove…They had technically won the battle against Hollow…but at a much greater cost than they realized. Much of the new technology used in the war, was marked as Voided. The Astralits from Starshine Shores, and from all over Klaedon had dissapeared completely as if called by some unknown force, leaving a concerning amount of children and some eggs behind. Most of the Nyulop and Draken adult townsfolk , fighters and parents alike, had been killed by either directly by Hollows forces or indirectly by the sealing blast being the final nail in their coffin. 

Families had been destroyed….homes were lost…and all memory of Spirits Grove, its residents, and even the folks from other towns who remained behind to help, had been marked by Void as a side effect of the battles finale…forgotten by the world around them that once viewed them as an unwavering beacon of hope.

Time passes by as if nothing happened after the last battle. Seasons pass, the construction of new railroads continued after all efforts were halted for reasons nobody can exactly recall, and cities that felt smaller than they should be, began to bounce back. Things continued on as they did before the Great Imbalance…as if nothing was ever wrong to begin with. Some finley had a small niggling feeling that perhaps, there was something missing that was there before….but there was nothing to pursue beyond a fleeting unclear thought…so they were more often than not dropped and forgotten about.

 

Brydon City, once a fairly mixed species city, was now considered the Dwarf Capital of Klaedon with a higher population of Dwarf Nyulop than anywhere else, due to them sending many of their standards and Draken to fight. 

Aurem, a once bustling city filled with Leporid, turned into a much smaller town rampant with crime and conflict due to many of the peacekeepers joining the fight with Spirits Grove. The residents still maintained their fierce and independent charm, but outsiders were regarded with much more scrutiny than before. 

 

Channelium Faith was the only large city barely affected….and the only ones that remained aware about the situation that happened. When they originally called a retreat, a large magic shield was put up over the city, and maintained for months and months, keeping everyone inside safe and away from any potential negative effects that may come from the fight with a Void-Sent.

When they seen the large blast of magic race over their heads, they knew something major happened, and their shields came down.

 

The comatose residents of a town no longer remembered lay where they fell all those months ago, still unmoving beyond small shallow breaths marking them as still part of this living world while tucked away in their cocoons, and…it stayed that way as Winter turned into Spring, Summer into Fall….unchanging as Nature continues her claim over the abandoned settlement, further burying the fallen sleepers in a gentle hammock of greenery.

 

What seems like ages later…finally…the first sign of awakening makes its presence known in the now vastly overgrown towns grassy expanse. Vortea stirs from her resting place of what seems like a lifetime, groaning heavily as her arms shakily pry her body up from the imprint its made in the ground and the plants clinging to her frame. Her mind wanders as she blinks the crust from her eyes, and gazes around at a terrain now made unfamiliar. The hot sun bears down on the ground, and she groans at the heat berating her.

 

How long has it been…? The orb which contains Hollow’s sealed essence lie in front of her, and it was nearly completely hidden in the amount of lush greenery sprouting from the dirt and cobble path they both are currently on. That amount of greenery said it had been coming up for quite a while, and her imprint where her body has been shows nothing but bare earth underneath…her armor was also heavily rusted, showing what seems like YEARS worth of corrosion….it couldn't of been that long, could it..? 

 

Dirt and plant debris crumble off her body as Vortea climbs to her feet unsteadily, heated rusty armor creaking and jabbing her body uncomfortably as she gets her balance on limbs extremely out of practice. Her surroundings look almost nothing like she remembered, nearly completely unrecognizable.

 

Gathering her bearings, she glances around and sees the ragged, dilapidated, wooden structures where the quickly constructed homes and businesses of the immigrated families once stood, the stone town hall which was mainly untouched besides some greenery and vines, the four large Inns with trees sprouting on the porches and balconies, overtaken with plants everywhere else, and a few scattered original businesses or homes made of brick or sturdier wood on the main street that held up against the onslaught of nature and being unmaintained. Spirits Grove was…for more or less gone.

 

Shedding the armor and freeing herself from the rusty discomfort, Vortea rubs her arms sorely, picks up Hollow’s containment, and begins to walk towards Bluesky Inn. On the path over, she steps over rusted weapons, shields, armor…and these strange overgrown mounds that seem to be everywhere. She curiously pokes one and the leaves and grasses part for her claw, and inside she sees a soundly sleeping infant starlit curled up in the grassy swaddle. Vortea reels a bit in shock, and the plants retract to their place they were before.

 

Still surprised by the discovery, and now overly pondering whats going on, Vortea climbs the creaking steps to the Inn and steps inside. The air is stale and hot, and by the thick layer of dust coating the surfaces, it is clear that this place hasn't has finley living in it for quite awhile. She heads to her old room, and pushes the door open, grunting as the relative Springtime humidity has made the wood swell against the frame. 

 

Nothing seems disturbed too much,  and her pack and clothes lay where they were placed however long ago, sporting a hefty layer of dust. She looks by her bed, and groans as she realizes her window was left open, the screen was busted out, and her bedside table, bed, and the floor around the window were well past repair and terribly warped and worn from moisture.

 

 Rushing over, she opens the top drawer of her bedside table and her face falls seeing her two most precious belongings warped and damaged by water. Her journal, which shes had since her gem started coming in and contains so many small and precious details of her life, and a small wood and mother of pearl bound daguerreotype picture which showed her two mothers posing together, and her mimi in front of them while sitting in a chair, holding a squealing, joyous infant Vortea on their lap. 

 

Both had water damage, the daguerreotype showing white splatters all over it, with the corner fading into white from water and green of the copper patina, and the journal was warped, pages crinkled and stuck together, ink running into other pages, and making a mess. The glue in the binding also had come undone in spots, and many pages were loose and fell out as Vortea touched them.

 

The sensation was heart wrenching, and if she wasn't already exhausted, she would've been inconsolably crying at the damage. Gathering her wits about her again and blinking away the tears threatening to spill over, she tucks the journal back into the drawer, and closes the open window the best she could…it was stuck similarly to the door, and it required a ton of effort to get shut. 

 

There…was a lot of work that needed done to get this town back into shape…if those grassy mounds contained more children like she seen outside, there was many, many babies who would need shelter, and the town was in no shape to provide currently. Reaching deep into her core, she searched to see if Ashen was still present, or if they had left in the time she had been asleep. A whisper of presence was there to greet her probing, and Vortea sighs a bit in relief and touches the white gem embedded in her chest as a comfort.

 

The days Vortea spent cleaning up the town flew by, and she was repeatedly exhausted each time night rolled around. A small clearing next to the lake is where she set up camp for the time being, gathering supplies that were still good from the houses and Inns in the town hall. She used her Creation magic to clear the plantlife around the town easily enough, simply reverting the growth of the many flora that had made Spirits Grove their home over the assumes years of time that had passed.

 

Fae spirits aplenty flocked to Vortea curiously as she cleaned the town they called their home, sensing her energy was more than just a simple Drakens. The tiny spirits kept the Dual company in her long days, cheering her up with small antics, and even lending a hand in certain cases where they could, and playing on the grassy cocoons Vortea carefully avoided messing with. 

 

Now that the rogue grasses and other plantlife had been subdued around half a month in and the town was starting to look presentable again, the sheer amount of grassy pods around the town was astounding. The majority of them were..tiny. Child sized even. Only a generous handful of adults were spotted, and Vortea marks the locations of every pod she finds carefully on an aerial view map of the town she got from the Library.

 

Thinking about how she is going to present herself to those who woke up, she heads to the Bluesky Inns communal bathroom, and while looking into a dirty mirror, Vortea just knew her eyes were beyond saving again. They felt normal, but she could only stare at the changed face looking back at her. Solid, pure white eyes stared back at her, similarly pure white horns and spikes gracing her head, wings, and body where they once sat as a deep grey. Her bodies scales even lightened from their previous deep navy blue, to more of a bright, near neon sky blue….she hadnt even noticed they changed so drastically, her body was so covered in dust and dirt. The more she washed herself off, the more she seen how the brandishing of such power had altered her.

 

It was like being in someone else's body, and it was another thing she had to shove down and ignore ....there were more important things to tend to.

Relentless repair efforts filled her days, trying to get the small bits of the town in shape the best she could with just herself. Not much seemed to be left of the once sprawling town…just a handful of homes, the inns, a building that looked to be a museum, the guild hall, an area with four large posts and the remains of a tarp over it, and what looks like a bank. Overall…bleak results for what she seen the town as before.

 

It was a month or so later, she assumed it to be some time in late Spring, when the first grassy cocoon started to unwrap itself. Vortea was washing some bedding from the Inns, getting the bedding clean using magic and water from the lake so folks would have clean beds to come back to and stuffing mattresses with fresh straw, when she looks up and sees a stumbling figure wandering into town. She drops everything, and rushes over, helping the finley into town. It was young Swift, she remembered seeing him working in the guild hall awhile back. A starry eyed and energetic Draken, Vortea was relieved to see he was ok…just extremely tired and shaky. 

 

Swift seemed too tired to notice her obvious bodily changes, and she keeps her head down to avoid him looking at her and catching sight of her eyes. He…doesn't seem to recognize where they were at, so she leads the weary Water Draken to her campsite, and sets him down to rest for the time being. She knew what she had to do once again to avoid suspicion from the folks awakening because it seemed to of began sooner than originally expected, and a heavy shudder of dread went through her body just at the mere thought.

 

Telling Swift that she’d be back soon, Vortea takes off, heading to the old hilled outskirts of town to the bush where she put her old eyes to rest some years ago. The bush was massive and thriving in the spot where planted, growing gorgeous gold and white frilly flowers, and even some near pure white round berries with a waxy, glossy shell that seemed to have a little black dot on each of them. She sits under the variegated leaves, studying them. The bush looks at healthy at least, vibrant and lush, with a strong central trunk. 

 

Would another set of eyes make it even larger, she wondered? Would it even do anything? She sighs and lays carefully on her back, fighting herself internally on what she knows needs to happen. Ashen wasnt even there to dull the pain this time. Her mind flashes back to the gruesome feeling of sinew popping and stretching from her sockets….she was sure she couldn't do it without their help….until a voice softly whispered into the back of her mind. The berries. Eat the berries, it said. 

 

Vortea gazes up, and spots a small cluster of the fruits, their polished waxy hulls glistening in the speckled sunlight streaming through the leaves. She reaches up nervously, grasping some of them in her claws and rolling them around and lifting them above her to inspect them better.

Roughly the size of blueberries, they have a translucent crunchy shell, with a soft leathery skin underneath that hides bright yellow mushy flesh. She pops one open with her clawtips, and inspects the flesh, sniffing it cautiously. It was extremely sweet smelling, similar to honey almost, and made her head spin a bit.

 

Deciding that she didnt have much to loose at this point, she eats a handfull of them, and she grips the ground beneath her after she swallows. The ground was spinning at a thousand miles an hour, sounds becoming overbearing, colors becoming too bright, and she clutches her eyes and grits her teeth as a firey burning sensation fills her skull. 

And as quickly as it began, it was over. The vertigo leaves her, and she wearily opens her eyes after giving them a solid rub to get rid of the ghostly trails of afterpain. 

 

Groaning in her throat, she wearily climbs to her feet again, stuffs a few clusters of berries into her bag just in case, and heads to a nearby creek that was babbling through the prairie. She inspects her eyes carefully in the waters reflection, and sees they were once again a rich gold with paler yellow sclera. Vortea thanks the Circles above that the fruits worked to restore her stained eyes, and she makes her way back to the town hastily to check on Swift.

 

The days passed without too much fanfare, Swift made a quick recovery, and often helped Vortea out with restoring buildings and cleaning things out. Two out of four Inns were near finished,with a third on the way to being done and the town was in a state where it was simply looking disheveled, and not completely abandoned. 

 

They made an efficient team, and he even helped Vortea built a brick planter using a demolished buildings materials on the outside of town to make a proper home for the  sapling she woke up next to. 

They made it over the large crater where Vortea sealed Hollow away…though Swift had no knowledge of said event ever happening, and simply thought something large fell and created the indent, making comments about how awesome it wouldve been to see something so big fall. 

 

Time ticked onwards, Vortea made progress during the nights under the stars as to what exactly happened. Convening with a slowly awakening Ashen, she gathered that it had been roughly five entire years spent in a coma-like state, and that during the blast, sealing Hollow released the excess Void energy trapped in his form, and completely erased the past memories of everyone in the town, and effectively removed Spirits Grove from the map globally.

 

Due to their presence protecting Vorteas mind….she was the only one left that recalls anything from before she woke. She was the sole finley left on the planet that remembers…and it hurts.

 It was the night of May 31st, 2017, that Vortea decided to make this town her home permanently. She will rebuild this place even if it takes everything she had, she will preserve the memory of those who gave their lives fighting for this town….and she goes to bed content that night, feeling hopeful for the future.

 

June rolls in with a fervent heat, and with the new month, it brings a large flood of freshly uncocooned adults AND children. Swift wakes Vortea up with a rush of energy, and drags the Draken out to the fields around town to welcome the adults and children heading towards the town. There were so many babies, so many young children, it was….overwhelming. Many were discombobulated, rubbing tiredness from their tiny eyes and yawning as they looked around. Others were energetic and playful, gathering by the other children and chasing each other around with a renewed energy the adults that woke up, seemed to lack.

 

Vortea looked around at the faces of the adults she seen through the crowd. Mayor Hyndrel..Mayor Gale…Honey…Vac…Carina..Blaise..Tobias…all for the most part fairly young adults themselves, many of them either too weak or unskilled to fight….which would explain why they were still standing. There was a figure she didnt quite recognize as well, one donned in a short black cloak with the face mostly hidden, and she got..an odd energy off them. Not necessarily bad, just odd. None of the soldiers seemed to of made it back…and Vortea realized with a devastatingly world crushing thought…that her Mark, Tatshka, was not spotted with the other adults. Its almost as if she could feel her heart breaking, shattering into tiny glass shards that stab her chest and made it hard to breathe. She stumbles back, and tells Swift that she needs a moment to lead them to the towns center, to which he nods.

 

She quickly walks off to the big stone town hall, keeping a brisk stride despite her urge to run, and she slips through the large oak doors to the cool and quiet stone interior. Stepping into an empty side office and dropping to her knees and then flopping on her chest, Vortea finally lets out the emotions she's been shoving down for weeks, the stress, the heartbreak of loosing her Mark, the magnitude of being the only one left who remembers and wondering if her mamas and mimi even remember her, and wails fill the room as she breaks down on the ground. Dust flies up as she sobs, and the cool stone below caresses her face soothingly as she lets out the torrent of sorrow.

 

She has no idea how long she stayed down there on the floor, even long after the sobs have stopped and she just lay in silence. When she managed to get herself up off the floor and looked out a window, she seen that the sun had shifted significantly in the sky, and read around 1pm. Cleaning the dust from her scales, she makes her way back out of the town hall, and towards the center of town. 

 

Surprise lit her features up as she witnessed the scene in front of her when she opens the door. Down the street and surrounding the brick planter her and Swift had made was an entire swarm of new finley. Astralits, Nyulop, and Draken children mixed in a huge crowd around the planter, giggles filled the air, and the adults that were present before were trying to keep calm and keep the children together they best they possibly could. 

 

Honey, Vac, Blaise, and Carina were almost expertly herding the children together in groups, seemingly running off of instinct, and Vortea smiles a bit watching the old Innkeeps fall into a similar role as they originally had without a missed beat almost like it was muscle memory. She helps Swift get another group together, and after twenty more minutes, finally had all the present children sat down and paying the best attention they could to the group of clustered adults.

 

Vortea goes around with Hyndrel, and gets a headcount of everyone present. There was around 150 children of mixed species, and about 10 adults….admittedly not a great ratio.

Vortea sighs and gathers with a few of the other adults and talked a bit about what they could possibly do to protect all of these children and babies.

 

The mysterious cloaked Nyulop steps forward in the group nervously, quietly saying how they were good at organizing, and offering to help sort the children into shelters. They explained that Swift told them that the four large structures around them were reportedly used like housing, and were recently cleaned out and ready for boarding. Hyndrel strokes his now rather long mustache, and nods in response to the hooded lop. Vortea goes to grab a pad of paper she remembers seeing in Bluesky, and comes back with a coal pencil as well. 

 

The hooded Nyulop nods a bit in thanks, and told the group to call them M. M then steps back, and announces to the children to sort themselves in a line and tell them their name, and what place they would like to be sorted into based on colors: Red, Blue, Yellow, or Green. The nyulop kept records of each childs name and what color they wanted, and they pointed to either Blaise, Honey, Carina, or Vac depending on what color they chose. Vas was assigned green, Honey was yellow, Carina was blue, and Blaise was red.

 

The children sorted themselves fairly quickly, and each house ended up with around 35 or so children. 

M tore the sheets out that they wrote on, and used them to reference and create color corresponding lists with the childrens names on them. 

When they finished, they gave a list to each newly promoted Housing Master, and told them to lead the children into the houses, and start assigning rooms and writing which child goes where. Vortea pipes up for the new Bluesky Housemaster, Carina, to avoid rooms 175 and 177 as they were taken, which the blue Nyulop nods to.

 

Repairs continued to the town with added gusto. The extra adults made the finishing steps so much quicker, old belongings were found new owners, homes were claimed, and the present adults each got to pick their own since there were so many empty ones. Vortea chose a house on the main street, near the town hall, with a good view of the woods and lake. Things were going to be hard for awhile…but she's ready to help lead this now town of children into a bright future.

 

Come mid June after many day-and-night long discussions between the adults of how theyre going to divide and run everything properly in the infant town and what they are going to make the goal of this new settlement, Hyndrel calls a meeting in the center of the town, a podium found in the town hall placed in front of the brick planter. He stands tall behind the stand, and waits for everybody in the crowd to quiet down. Once they do, he speaks up, calmly and clearly to spread his voice across the many young faces looking up towards him earnestly.

 

“Greetings,” He says solemnly in a low baritone voice, “I am Hyndrel, one of the elected co-mayors of this new settlement. This town, which we have decided to name Whistler Crest, has been claimed from nature in hopes of providing a connection between the Northern settlement in the Morray Mountains and the Southern settlement in Cobey Desert.” He gave pause to allow the onlookers a moment to process everything. 

 

“While there is a majority of children present, and things are going to be challenging, with our new Council here to help guide this town, we hope to create a bright and prosperous future for everybody here!”

 

The Nyulop lets his co-mayor, Gale, come to the podium and speak her introductory piece as well, and talks to the crowd with a nervous but upbeat message.

Vortea, who is in the crowd in back with the adults, smiles warmly as the pieces start to fall into place, and the settlement starts becoming a proper town again. Things were going to be ok…Whistler Crest is going to be ok.