The world stretched wide and endless below Sonder, and for the first time in days, she felt light and unburdened, as though she had slipped free from the weight of the earth itself.
The night air carried her far, floating between the stars and the soil, away from any worry.
But strain came quickly. The barrier quivered under her grip, and it tugged on her shoulders until they ached.
Every second in the sky drained her. She wasn't flying, not truly. She was no bird.
She was only leaping from the ground, skimming and gliding for moments at a time.
But it was a good method to avoid the roots and rivers and any other obstacle that would have slowed her down.
When the plains stretched wide and flat, she angled herself down, her breath tight in her chest.
The barrier dissolved into nothing as her boots struck the ground again.
She stumbled once, twice, and then steadied herself with a short run.
It would be foolish to burn herself out trying to glide the whole way back to the Yellow Mage's home.
It would take a week, and stamina mattered as much as speed.
She adjusted her clothes and her new sword and checked that the tears were still secure in her pocket, then went on, pressing on eastwards on foot.
The land was gentler than the one in the west.
Where the west was strangled by thickets, scarred with dry patches, and choked with shadow after sunset, here the meadows rolled clean and bright under the moon.
The grass bent softly against her instead of clawing at her.
The streams ran narrow and clear, easy to leap across. None seemed eager to drown her.
It almost felt as though the land itself wanted her to pass. She could not help but wonder why.
Was it the Yellow Mage? From what she gathered, he was a great healer, and it wasn't only people that one could heal.
Did his presence spread unseen health through the earth, keeping it in order?
Or was it something else?
She remembered Vell and the Irath King, their powers colliding like storms.
The king had struck westward with all his fury, the blackness spilling into that direction. Maybe that was why these hills, where Vell's power had spread, seemed untouched, spared from corruption.
"As she went on, the hills, the bends of streams, even the cave she and Vell had shared, all grew familiar.
She left quickly.
The ground sloped downward, and in the distance she saw what had once been the ruins of the Irath palace.
She stopped short.
They were gone.
Where there had been a grand display of dark power, now there was only an open plain.
The walls, the gates, the stone itself, all had vanished. Grass had begun to creep across the earth as if nothing had ever stood there at all.
It was unsettling. But as things were, this was not her biggest worry.
Still, Sonder quickened her pace, her hand on the hilt of the sword.
And though she didn't feel it, for her mind was occupied, the shard of darkness stirred faintly in her pocket.