I. Awakened by Fire

2008-01-04T16:40:00.000-08:00

She could see the patterns of the fire, dark and light and dancing on the backs of her eyelids, before she was completely awake. Through a small hole in the wall, where bits of the stone seemed to be broken away, the orange blaze seemed almost surreal, the only splash of color between a starless black sky and a ground covered in ice. Shadows pulsed against the grey stone of the walls. She shook her head as if trying to disperse the remnants of an unpleasant dream, then shakily got to her feet.

She approached the opening warily, tentatively, placing one hand on the windowsill to steady herself for what she knew she would see. And then she saw; a slow fire, no longer raging, but calmly smoldering in the embers of ruined buildings - a luminescent orange blanket stretching all the way to the murky black sea.

She pushed the rising panic to the back of her mind, steadying herself. There were no screams, in fact, there were no voices at all, no people could be seen, and nothing moved save the still flickering flames that still had fuel to burn. The silence was unnatural and oppressive. The silence was incomprehensible. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to calculate how much time had passed since she had been down here. But there was no way to tell.

The room she was now in was small: The walls were made of stone, thick and cold to the touch, large blocks fitted together almost seamlessly. There were no windows, only the breach in the corner, and she couldn't think of what sort of force could have caused it. She tried to search her memory; yes, this was the storage vault beneath the town hall, where various baubles of value were stored. As she began to wonder why she was here, her hands went to her pockets, and removed several small, valuable items. She stared at them uncomprehendingly. "So I'm a thief, am I?" she said, to no one in particular. Her voice seemed unnaturally loud to her. She replaced the items in her pockets and approached the large vault door. Unlocked.

As she stepped through, she was assaulted with a wave of heat much more intense than seemed appropriate. Pushing her unruly hair behind her ears, she carefully walked over the now-cooling embers of wall struts and boards, the shattered glass and the overturned, soot-covered furniture. There was little smoke, but the smell of charred wood and melting metal made her feel more than a little dizzy. She reached the main entryway, or where the main entryway had been - the doors hung off their hinges, as if blasted open from outside.

She was unprepared for her first real look at the remains of the town. All around her. Water flowed through the streets, the melting ice creating a river of warm, dirty water carrying various bits of wreckage down toward the shore. It was the heart of winter, all the buildings had been covered with heavy layers of ice. Hard to imagine a fire getting out of control, and yet the ruined town still posed the question : What could have done this?

Then she heard a sound behind her, like the fast whirring of a fan. She whirled around to behold what seemed to be a transport of some kind, though it hovered in mid air. She watched the spinning propeller for a moment, her mind understanding the physics of it, but before she could marvel further, two masked figures emerged and walked toward her.

"Wait, wait!" she said uselessly, as they each took hold of one of her shoulders and marched her toward the vehicle. They unceremoniously tossed her inside, and one tied a rag around her mouth. She smelled lavender and sweetness, then began to slowly lose consciousness.

"Wire the Unity and tell them we found a survivor," a male voice said. "We'll be breaking atmo in 5 minutes. There's nothing left here."

She wanted to ask so many questions, but her eyelids slowly drooped closed, and she felt the craft lift off the ground as she drifted back into unpleasant dreams.

(A Fragment of Sky)

I. Awakened by Fire