Ten days after the argument that severed their link, Selena felt something new stirring in the realm of ash. She was deep in meditation, working with the shades in her flames to help them form coherent identities, when she sensed it—a concentration of intentionality, a gathering of purpose, a structure taking shape where there had been only formless gray matter.
Someone was building something.
Selena opened her eyes and looked toward the horizon, following the thread of organized activity through her connection to the eternal flame. What she found made her breath catch.
A city. Or the beginning of one, at least.
It was impossible, shouldn't exist, defied everything she understood about this realm. The ash here was unstable, unable to maintain form, too damaged by the Hollow's influence to support permanent structures. Yet there it was—buildings rising from the gray dunes, walls being shaped from compressed ash, something solid coalescing from the half-dead landscape.
