The Shelter Beneath the Ashes
Ash. Smoke. Silence.
The battlefield was hollowed out—just this enormous crater, ripped straight into the earth like some god had slammed a fist down and left the world cracked open. The ground around it was scorched bare. Nothing left but blackened dirt, shattered bits of armor, twisted swords, and splintered spears—fragments of men who used to have names. Even the banners were ruined. What once flew proud, noble, full of color and war-cry, now hung in strips, tugged gently by a wind that smelled like dying breath.
And above it all, the sky was wrong.
