Vanessa Lyrian, known to her friends as Nessa, jolted up from the sleep she had accidentally drifted into, a movement that sent fresh waves of agony through the burns that had turned her left arm and some of that shoulder into raw, blistered flesh.

Gritting her teeth as she forced herself to breathe in sharply through her nose for several long seconds, she pursed her lips as though she were going to whistle and let it all out in a long exhale. It helped to center her back in the moment, to set aside the pain and the horrible memories of all the... the...

Fire.

Smoke and ash.

People screaming, dying.

And a nightmare with wings overlooking it all.

Fire and death. Fire and-

The flashes of memory were worse by far than her physical pain. Vanessa had seen death. She had seen some of the terrible things that the Empire could do to people supposedly under its protection. This, though... this had been beyond anything she could have ever imagined. The sick bastard Velitarii hadn't even cared as his creature turned friend, foe and innocent bystander to ash. No remorse. No hesitation. She couldn't understand how a person was even capable of being so evil.

Metallic boots set to the cadence of a march brought her back to the moment, and her head snapped to the side even as she pushed forward with her good hand against the wall she had been resting on when she fell asleep. Peeking around the crates she'd hidden behind in this random alley, she could just make out the form of solders in the armor and livery of the Imperial Legion parading down the street. Then she noticed it coming from other directions as well, and her blood ran cold.

These were not members of the Lakevale Guard. For the Legions to enter the city directly and en masse, the order would have had to come from someone with real power.

Someone like Ravas Velitarii.

The thought was bitter as she leaned back against the wall, still just trying to assess her situation and the wounds she had sustained.

Before the dragon had set the world on fire, it looked as though the Children of the Sky were actually going to be able to get out unscathed from their attack. No one, not even Orik himself, could have predicted the High Lord's complete disregard for civilian life, or even the lives of the Imperial soldiers in combat. It was an inhuman act. Vanessa... she didn't even know if anyone other than her had made it out alive. Eyes narrowing in determination, she forced herself into a crouch and continued down the alley until it reached a crossing of alleyways. Doing her best to fight through her physical pain and exhaustion, she turned right and kept going, crossing streets only when she was sure no soldiers were in sight.

She didn't have to worry about anyone else seeing her, because not a soul beyond the Imperial Legion moved through the city.

After what felt like forever, including three separate occasions where Vanessa had almost been spotted, she managed to reach a familiar alley with one of the hidden marks of the Children of the Sky etched into a wall near the entrance. She crept through it until she reached a grate leading into the sewers, her only chance at getting back to the Nest in one piece. Panting with exertion, she used her unharmed hand to grip the side of the grate and pulled with every bit of strength she could muster.

Unfortunately, she just couldn't lift it.

Several attempts later, she slumped against the alley wall in defeat, panting and trying not to let fear and the looming threat of death harm her reason. It was all that she had left at this point, it seemed. She nearly died of fright when someone spoke.

"You need some help with that?" the voice croaked, deep and obviously male. Vanessa whirled, managing to get into a halfway decent ready position as her hand went for the only dirk she had managed to recover as she fled from the city center. There were several tense moments as she looked for who had spoken and then, stumbling on what was obviously a bad leg, Matthew Romari left the shadows at the end of the alley. Relief greater than anything she had ever felt flooded her and she rushed the bear of a man and hugged him.

"By the Four, Matt, you're alive! You're alive. I didn't know who... I thought that maybe I..." she bit back tears even as Matt returned the hug, stroking her hair gently.

"I know, Nessa. I know. You're not alone," he whispered, the father in him surging forth as he reacted on instinct. Then, cheeks flaming red at her sudden burst of emotion, Vanessa stepped back, turning her attention instead to the man's wounds.

"Matthew, that... that looks..." she began, gesturing to his leg, but he shook his head and held out a hand.

"It's not great, Nessa, but we'll have all the time in the world to deal with things like flesh wounds when we're safely back in the Nest. I was too tired after getting here to get the grate open and head down on my own, but with you here I think we can manage. Alright?" Matthew replied. The sudden reminder of the mortal peril they remained in shut down all the extraneous thoughts in her mind as she nodded. Then, with Matthew sitting to avoid hurting his burnt leg anymore than it already was and Vanessa gripping with her unwounded hand, they lifted the grate and slid it aside. Panting from the exertion, they nevertheless pushed on, Vanessa climbing down first on account of her unhurt legs before Matt started after her, stopping just a moment to slide the grate back into place with a loud clanging sound.

Both of them cringed at the noise, but considering the circumstances they just had to hope that even if soldiers had heard and came looking they wouldn't think to check the sewers.

After taking only a minute to recover from that exertion, Matthew threw an arm around Vanessa's shoulders, brushing lightly against the edge of her burnt skin on the other side. It was a pain she could bare to keep what could be, at this moment, her only remaining friend alive. Like that, they began the long trek home. Many times they could hear the marching of countless Legionnaires in the streets above, or the roars of dragons that triggered Vanessa often enough that she realized it would likely be a mental scar she would carry for the rest of her life. Thankfully, though, they managed to make it to the edge of the Quiet without any issues.

They took a break there, one of many they had been forced to allow considering their state.

"Matt. What... what do we do if we make it back... and no one else did? I know all the people who aren't fighters stayed behind, so they should be safe, but wouldn't... wouldn't that be it for the Children?" she asked in the quiet, while both of them let their wounded and aching bodies recover.

Matthew was silent for a long time after her question, and she could see him thinking. Finally, he sighed and met her eyes.

"If we're the only ones who make it back, then it would be a tragedy neither of us will ever be able to live down. But... Valen and Hera made it out, Nessa. And they had my boys with them and that wyvern of theirs. I know they were chased, but I choose to believe they're safe somewhere on the other side of Westlake and fleeing even further as we speak. That means something." Matthew adjusted himself, turning to face Vanessa fully.

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"I know you felt it while he was with us - that boy, Valen? He's special. I don't understand how or why, and I certainly never felt anything like this when we worked with his family, but he is. So if we're the only ones left, then we keep up the fight. However we can, for as long as we can. Hope isn't dead as long as someone still believes in what's right, Nessa. And that will always mean something."

Vanessa stared at her friend for a long time, taking in everything he had said while considering the horrible things they had seen and the damage done to their own bodies in the chaos of it all. Yet the look in Matt's eyes... there was no defeat there. There was only a fiery challenge that seemed to dare her not to believe. She cracked a grin.

"Damn. Well when you put it like that, I'd feel like a real ass if I kept on with all this 'woe is me' stuff," she quipped. Matthew grinned back, and then they shared a real laugh that seemed to pierce the tension that had been hanging in the air around them since they had found each other.

That laughter cut off abruptly as they heard shouts.

"I hear people, down this way!" someone cried. Immediately the two were on their feet. Vanessa's heart was pounding as fresh adrenaline surged through her veins. She went to Matt's side and pulled his arm around her as quickly as possible and then they were moving again, crossing the border into the Quiet. Panting heavily, the two of them hurried as fast as they dared, yet it felt like with every turn they made the voices behind them grew closer and closer.

"Nessa," Matt whispered, leaning close to her ear so he could speak as silently as possible. "Head for the Sinkhole."

Both its name and what it actually seemed to be, the Sinkhole was positioned at the exact center of the Quiet. Although she had never actually learned why they had such odd rules about this area, Vanessa had always suspected it had something to do with that strange, downright scary pit that ran so deep underwater that no one could see the bottom.

"Why? What... what's there that can help us?" she replied, whispering as well. Matthew grimaced.

"Something," was all that he said, as if unsure about it himself. Nonplussed but deciding in their current circumstances she could deal with it, she changed direction at a turn and made for their new destination. Closer and closer their pursuers came, until she could swear she heard them right around the last corner. Yet at last they reached their destination, entering a massive chamber with a narrow stone walkway all the way around its rim. Streams of sewage flowed into the Sinkhole, but somehow the water within seemed to dissipate the filth without making itself murky, an odd phenomenon that Vanessa had never really noticed before.

"Make for the other side," Matt said. He was speaking so quietly now that even whispering into her ear, she was barely able to hear him. Still, she gave him a nod and then helped him along the path, starting to circle for the one of the exits on the other side that she knew would loop around back onto the route toward the Nest.

They had barely made it ten feet before there was a clamor and the sound of someone entering the chamber behind them.

"HALT! By order of the Imperial Legion and His Imperial Majesty, you are under arrest for rebellion, sedition, and wanton slaughter and destruction! Stand down or die where you stand!" the person shouted. Vanessa and Matt froze, both turning slowly to face their fate. The speaker, clad in the full regalia of a Captain of the Legion, had his spear lowered even as his squad entered behind him, a good ten soldiers under his command. Panting wildly, she looked around for anything that might save them, but there was nothing. It was just a bare room with a deep, deep pit full of water.

"I'm sorry Matt. It looks like that hope you were talking about is for someone else," she finally said, upon accepting they had nowhere to run.

"Quiet, Nessa, please," the man replied, looking at her with such an urgent intensity that she shut her mouth immediately, more than a little confused.

The armored Legionnaires approached slowly, weapons raised. They, along with Vanessa, failed to notice the bubbles that started at the center of the Sinkhole before quickly spreading across its entirety. When sewage popped and sprayed across them all, heads turned just in time for something to emerge from the water.

It was... enormous. Its head could barely fit through the opening of the Sinkhole, yet it moved so adroitly that it barely mattered as its yellow, reptilian gaze fell upon the soldiers, all of whom had made no efforts to keep the reverent silence of the Quiet.

The Imperials could only gawk as what she could only vaguely describe as a serpent opened its mouth and swallowed the entire squad whole.

There was only stillness for a time, and then the thing slowly turned until its eyes found Vanessa and Matthew.

Acting on instinct alone, both of them prostrated themselves before this creature. Vanessa kept her eyes on the ground as she prayed to the Four her life would not end like this, not daring to even glance up in case she upset the serpent.

"You pray to the wrong ones, tiny human. Half of them are dead, and the others may as well be."

The voice was unlike anything she had ever experienced. It seemed to reverberate down into her very soul, reaching into the depths of her psyche and all of her beliefs and implanting something new there, something so obvious as she lay before this being and yet laughed in the face of everything she had ever known.

This was a god.

"Yet your mind leads you quickly to rightful correction. This is at it should be. You have both brought enemies of Order to me this day, to meet their rightful demise, and for that you have my gratitude."

Vanessa felt chills down her spine and fought the urge to look up. There was no way she was going to offend this... this... impossible, terrifying wonder.

"Accept this reward in recompense, and then be gone... lest my gratitude falters before my hunger."

Suddenly, water flooded up from the Sinkhole and surrounded them both before it surged up their bodies, tracing their forms and seeking out burnt, raw flesh. Every wound that the water touched, a warmth flowed inward, erasing the damaged skin and leaving a fresh, glowing replacement. It was magic. Real, honest-to-goodness magic.

Yet as soon as it was done and the water receded, Vanessa recalled the great being's words and practically leapt to her feet, only briefly catching the serpent's features before Matthew joined her on his healed leg. It reminded her of a dragon, or a wyvern... it was a drake?

"Go, go, go," she whispered urgently, although he needed no urging having heard the being's words as well. Indeed, he had been the one to bring them there, which could only mean he had known something about it.

They found their exit and then they were gone, heading away from the deity that had not only slain their pursuers but healed them of wounds that should have left them debilitated and marred for the rest of their lives. She still felt the being's eyes on her, following her for a long time. Somehow, she knew he still followed her through the maze of the sewers until they had left the Quiet far behind. In the distance, there was a great, bubbling rumble, and that sense of being watched finally departed.

"What just happened?" she gasped, as the two of them stumbled to a stop. They had been running since the moment they were not within direct view of the deity, even if it had still been watching them with what she could only assume to be more magic.

"I... I don't know, Nessa. I heard from Orik that there was something in the Sinkhole that demanded the existence of the Quiet around it, but... if that was what he had seen, there was no way he would have withheld that information from everyone. That... by the... by whatever gods are listening, that was a god, wasn't it?" he finally replied.

Then a new voice cracked from the darkness, drawing both of them to immediate attention.

"Who rules the skies?" the voice demanded.

She had not even realized it, but in their flight from the literal deity they had reached one of the Nest's entrances wholly on instinct. Laughter at the suddenness of being home bubbled out of her, and Matthew soon had to fight not to join her, the sheer joy in his voice as he replied all the proof she needed to know he felt the same.

"None but the Sun and the Moon!" he declared. That was enough. After a moment there was a click as the hidden door into the Nest swung open, revealing several relieved faces waiting for their arrival. Front and center of them all?

Orik Thrangar. And the expression on his face at the sight of them was full of more emotion than they had ever seen on the man.

"Thank the Four you both are alive!" Orik shouted, pulling them both into a rough hug once he saw that they were unhurt.

Vanessa and Matthew looked at each other before laughing hysterically again, which only served to make Orik and everyone else confused.

"We have a lot to talk about," Matt finally said, clasping a hand on Orik's shoulder after their leader pulled back. The heavily scarred man locked eyes with him before simply nodding.

"That we do. The dragon patriarch's attack was an unmitigated disaster, and... Arn and Liza are gone... but yet more of us survived. The Children of the Sky will bleed the Empire for those it has taken," Orik declared, turning to the others assembled for a chorus of cheers and angry cries of approval.

The reality of the deaths aboveground chilled Vanessa's exuberance over her and Matthew's survival. Arn and LIza, both dead? It...

As the entrance into the Nest shut behind them, Vanessa could only shake her head.

After meeting a god, she had to admit, toppling a continent-spanning Empire that had just slaughtered so many people no longer seemed the impossible task it had before. And with the deaths of two more of her friends now laid at the feet of the Empire's tyranny, she would be all too happy to help in said toppling.