Chapter 12: Summit Above Storms
The wind up here tasted like thunder.
Alex squinted as their flying barn docked awkwardly against a cloud platform. One of the Cloudfolk stared as a goat baaa'd angrily from the window.
Jun waved. "It's normal. He gets air sick."
The Cloudfolk, dressed in robes that shimmered like stormlight, didn't respond. Instead, she raised a hand and whistled.
A bridge formed.
Out of clouds.
"No pressure," Meilin muttered. "We're just walkin on vapour."
Yun'er grinned. "Don't fall. The drop's... eternal."
They walked through what looked like a floating garden, but everything grew sideways.
Vines curled up into the sky. Apples hovered just out of reach. Lightning bugs here were actual lightning.
"System?" Alex whispered. "How stable is this place?"
"Cloudfolk engineering is 92% safe. 8% of walking surfaces occasionally vanish for spiritual enlightenment purposes."
Alex stopped walking.
"...Occasionally what now?"
They entered the central hall—round and open to the sky, ringed with clouds that pulsed like hearts.
Cloudfolk Elders stood in a circle.
At their center floated a bowl of stormwater, glowing faint blue.
One Elder stepped forward. She looked about thirty, maybe fifteen, maybe two hundred. Her eyes glowed like distant suns.
"You have fought the first shard," she said. "You are changed."
Yun'er bowed slightly. "It tried to consume the forest. We stopped it."
The Elder nodded. "But it is only the beginnin."
She waved a hand over the bowl.
A vision shimmered in the air: shards fallin—seven in all—each piercin different lands.
Mountains. Oceans. One... into a city.
Alex's heart sank.
"How do we stop them?"
The Elder's expression turned serious. "We must find the Anchor Root."
Jun blinked. "The what now?"
"The first seed. The true core. The Shards are echoes. But the Root… it's the mouth of the maw."
Meilin looked pale. "If it wakes…"
"...It eats the sky," Yun'er finished.
After the vision, came the feast.
Because apparently, the Cloudfolk don't do doom without dessert.
Plates of floating dumplins. Wind-pickled fruit. A cake shaped like a storm.
Jun cried actual tears. "I wanna move here."
One Elder looked at Alex and said, "We have a favor to ask."
Alex raised an eyebrow. "Lemme guess. You want turnips?"
"No. We want to borrow your tree."
He choked on cake. "My memory tree?"
"It remembers the before-times. If we anchor it here, we may trace the fall paths."
Alex crossed his arms. "It's got roots. It's got feelings. And a goat lives under it."
The Elder smiled faintly. "You may say no."
He sighed.
"I'll ask the tree."
Later, on a small floating ledge, Alex sat alone with the system.
"This just keeps gettin bigger."
"Correct. Threat scale has exceeded rural containment."
"I'm not a hero," he said. "I'm a farmer."
"You are a cultivator with infinite potential, unlimited shopping access, and a goat with aggression issues."
"...That last part's not encouragin."
"You are not alone."
Alex looked up as Yun'er walked over, holdin two cups of tea.
She passed him one.
"Drink this. You're broodin again."
"Was not."
"Were too."
He smiled a little.
She sat beside him.
"Still want that peaceful life?" she asked.
"More than ever."
She clinked her cup to his.
"Then let's fight hard enough to earn it."
Above them, stars blinked.
And far, far below...
Another shard landed.
This one… didn't crack.
It opened.