The massive golden-green leaves of the newly born World-Tree cast a cool, highly inviting shadow over the polished obsidian floor of the caldera, and the crisp autumn breeze weaving through the branches carried the sweet scent of blooming flowers instead of the suffocating stench of burning ash.
Kai stood hand-in-hand with Yena beneath the towering canopy, taking a long, deeply satisfying breath of the purified air, and he watched with immense pride as the surviving indentured workers slowly emerged from the lower foundries to stare up at the beautiful sky they had not seen in generations.
They were hesitant at first, their emaciated frames trembling slightly beneath their tattered iron-grey rags, but as the soothing, life-giving mana of the tree washed over them, they began to fall to their knees in absolute, overwhelming relief.
