Fallout was generally terrible, but sometimes it left pockets of good on ravaged worlds. This time, Kits arrived in a pool of sweet-smelling lavender liquid that sat smack in the middle of magical detritus. The world around her was far gone. Spires of impressive buildings tilted sideways in memories of earthquakes, there was a putrid stench on the wind Kits recognized as corpse rot, and the sky wheezed in an anemic palette under two moons—one of them cracked across the atmosphere as if it had been hit with a cosmic projectile.

The lavender pool rested unharmed, its own pleasant scent so soothing once it got in Kits’ nose that she barely noticed anything else for a while. Since the lavender liquid resembled water enough to do so, she bathed, then languished there half-submerged, wondering how to feel. Her own little oasis at the center of this broken landscape. Once the novelty wore off, she grieved, becoming a proxy for the world’s potential lost history. Surely the rest of this world had been as beautiful as the lavender pool, and now that pool was all that remained of what must’ve been a gorgeous civilization. Kits’ sorrow froze the lavender liquid.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.