Adelle walked through the nearly empty halls of Ampyre's Fortress Nor-Peak. With the noble powers restructuring itself, little activities graced the main building where the councils and royals would otherwise reside. A few cleaners continued their work keeping the stone floors clean, relighting lanterns that had gone out, and dusting the sills of windows. A couple of guards had been posted around record rooms and grand halls, all greeting the green-haired murderer of the former Pyrerai with curt nods and complicated feelings.

It was not often she got to do it in safety, but she liked wandering new places, forming a mental memory of each location she has visited. Adelle had very faint memories of her toddler years. Burning houses. Shrieking shadows. Spilt blood. Perhaps she was hoping that if she saw enough and remembered more places, she would be able to piece together where she came from. Of course, she was happy where she was now and in no rush to find out more of her past. If it came to be, lucky, but no loss for her.

She had saved the worst room for the last of her exploration. The library. Adelle could read and write, sure, but she did not like it, nor was she able to do so well. Too many texts jumbles up a space into dead insects sprayed across murdered trees. Luce had introduced her to electronic books, but they only really functioned in cities. While more bearable, they still weren't particularly engaging.

As the double stone door swung open on dwarven designed hinges, the waft of old books sent a shiver down Adelle's spine. Having lived almost all her life in the forest, the smell could only be described as having the water - the lifeblood - of the forest drained, and only the readied kindling left of husks to be burnt.

Within, the amalgamation of dead trees were housed in leather spine within stone shelves. Shielded lanterns lid the edge of each aisle. Luce said that in the furthest north of the continent there were a few fields that could grow trees. Those trees were often processed into what little paper they could to store as information in the royal library, the only library in Ampyre.

In the middle of the room was a large round table piled with high towers of books. A single electric lamp sat in the middle, lighting an eerie white amongst the incandescent orange.

“Ah,” the woman looked up, her edges drawn with black strokes from the shadows of light in the dim room. “Hello, friend, Adelle,” Galia greeted stiffly.

She was standing next to the table behind a pile of books and bowed slightly when the former walked in, almost like a maid.

From behind the wall of dead trees, Shou's head popped out. “Oh, hey you.”

Adelle raised a brow, annoyed at his cavalier attitude. “'Hey' yourself. What are you doing here? I'm sure Citi has way more books than Ampyre for you to read.”

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He replied, “I found Lachesis' journal and stash.”

Galia added, “And I am here to record them into my memory bank for archival.”

“There's a whole lot of information here about the sentinels we have no records of,” Shou explained.

Galia ping-ponged, “About a thousand years of first and secondhand details of their society, life, and history.

“I'm guessing most were written by Lachesis herself, life experience and all. A few might be from stories passed down to her.”

The android picked up a sealed letter. “This was addressed to your epitaph, Demon Eyes.”

Adelle took the letter and tore it open unceremoniously.

Shou snidely remarked, “Can you read?”

“Of course I can, you asshole!”

Wiltkins,

Congratulations. You must have managed to stop me. While I have chosen the path as a spirit of vengeance for our people, you seemed to have deemed yourself fit for the saviour of worlds. Shame we are opposed, never to stand side-by-side.

But a loss is a loss, and I would like to have a self-centred victory come from my defeat. So I have prepared a secret for you.

The sentinels, our race, there's a chance they are still alive, trapped in purgatory at the bottom of the world, a wall of fire surrounding them and the outside. This is only a theory, of course, and it would be a fool's errand to rush into The Burning South to find them in need of rescue. But fools often heroes are, and I would be so appreciative if you would throw yourself into the fire in an attempt to locate the last of our people.

Yours in death,

Lachesis Nazarene

“It's a trap,” Adelle said. “The Burning South. Not The Boiling Hot South. It's literally on fire. Stone, metal, earth and all.”

Galia began, “However, from the books we have managed to document, there are significant tales that backs the possible notion of a settlement of sentinels still existing.”

Adelle asked, “And what's the chance of that?”

“Should the information be taken at face value and the technology written of within works as intended, I calculate a thirteen point nine percent chance of survival, plus or minus two percent.”

Shou admitted, “That's not very high, Galia.”

Adelle noted, “I've gone on lower.”

Galia added, “The probability you would have stopped Exodus at the time of your escape with Josh was roughly six percent.”

Adelle threw her hands towards Galia, gesturing to Shou, You see? She then sighed. “You'll keep me updated on what you find here?”

The two friends nodded. “Of course.”

The elf left the dimly lit library into the light, reaffirming her hatred for books. Nothing good ever came out of reading.

She stepped up to the nearest window, facing north. Below in the courtyard, she spotted Luce pushing Misty around on her wheelchair. Bodyguards surrounded the perimeter of the walls, and Josh stood talking with Miu and Arnold under a shade. Shade. Exodus had cleared out enough of the rust cloud that there was actually enough light from the Twins to create shades now.

Luce looked up and their eyes locked. A smile spread across Adelle's lips - an unfamiliar emotion. The two waved to each other and Misti joined in the greeting. Straight north, the horizon of the plains cut across the world, the aftermath of a blade of light that slashed away the darkness.

Adelaide Wiltkins, Shou Kenta, and Galia will return

in

The Chronicles of Tearha: The Burning South