Appo found himself in a dream, or at least what had to have been, for he awoke in a field of flowers. The sky cast brilliant hues of blue and indigo. The massive obsidian walls of Zabukama stood tall in the distance, carving through the land like a river. Its smooth and glistening white pyramids towered high over them all.

“ They all died so young. Their forebears used to live such long lives ”

Two children played at the top of the hill. One of them was a boy no older than five, adorned in beautiful teal jewelry and a multitude of nose piercings. His crown bounced as the boy chased after a young blonde girl who laughed as she outran him. Lowya was quick, but perhaps it was because the boy had already been winded by chasing her.

“ The Pox claimed many. Lockjaw and Consumption took others. Eventually, it was any sickness. Their first fever was almost always their last ”

The bejeweled boy smiled as he watched Lowya twirl in a circular dance. Her dress fanned outward as she spun. The boy tried to mimic her before losing balance, his crown falling off to the side.

“ Most died by their tenth nameday, their bodies corrupted at the very foundation. With every passing generation, they died sooner than the last ”

The boy fell back on his bottom, his body going limp. His eyes drooped and he brought his arms and legs together inside his body. He fell into a deep sleep, his smile frozen in place.

“ That was why they came to me. They hoped I could save them, protect them from my many creations. And I did ”

Lowya ran to the boy, who had become completely still. She stared at him, her giggles fading into a slight smile before she trotted away. Across the knoll, a slightly older girl waved at Lowya, who made her way over. When Lowya reached the girl, she had taken on the form of the young boy, jewels and all. The girl, with matching opals braided brilliantly within her hair, hugged the boy. They could have been siblings.

“ Bodies with such a poor foundation were never long for this plane. I could only do so much. Still, I saw them sprout. A few fell in love. If they were lucky, they made heirs of their own. They too eventually passed on ”

The bejeweled girl chased the younger boy, who now ran ahead at full speed. The two laughed together, though the girl’s silent hacking coughs kept her pace from quickening.

“ But they were happy. We’d play together, seeing me as an older brother, or a forgotten mother, or a distant cousin. Only the consecrated could see... What the others saw, one could only guess ”

As the boy ran up a hill, the girl abruptly fell to her knees. Her coughing spell continued until she became still, her face lying on the ground. The boy returned to the girl, his laugh slowly becoming a soft smile.

“ You would think it wouldn’t matter after seeing so many die ”

A rumbling sound erupted from behind them all. Appo turned, finding a towering wooden structure pushed on several wheels, each the size of a man. The tower itself stood at least thirty meters tall. Fifty soldiers pushed it, yelling at each other as they took turns climbing inside. Arrows and spears and catapults launched over Appo as it crept toward him.

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“ All they knew was war. Their magnificent capacity to build was surpassed only by their ability to destroy ”

Appo was in a forest now, and ten armored Soturi charged past him with swords and spears and longbows. Their blades sliced through the siege engineers like parchment before they inevitably collapsed in the rain of arrows. The yells of the charge became deafening as the siege engine approached. Appo placed his hands over his ears and shut his eyes as the carnage crescendoed.

“ I guess I just wanted them to stop dying ”

Then it was silent. The siege engines and the Soturi were gone. The grassy plains and Zabukama were gone. Even the sky was gone. Appo opened his eyes into a void, finding only Lowya. She stood over a body draped in an elegant silk cloth. Her face was red from tears, her hands cradling a small orb of light barely the size of a marble.

“ My creations had only taken away life. For once, I wanted to give it back ”

The light slowly descended towards the body, splitting down the middle as it did so. The two halves split again into four, and so on, before enveloping the body in a haze.

“ But all they knew was war ”

In an instant, ten pairs of elongated hands clasped Lowya and the child. Lowya screamed, echoing with the body below her. The hands pulled her into the void, fading into nothing.

Appo found himself standing over a sarcophagus. Ten men, pierced with jewelry from head to toe, stood beside Appo. They wore various jade bracelets but otherwise lacked any clothing at all. Within the sarcophagus was a shrouded child, screaming and thrashing as the men held down his arms and legs.

“ They tried to take it for themselves. They studied and poked and prodded. Some longed for immortality. Others believed they found a weapon that could destroy their enemy once and for all. But none of them thought of the cost ”

Two men closed the sarcophagus. The child’s cries nearly vanished as the lid slammed shut.

“ When I saw what they did, all I could do was scream ”

The muffled cries of the child became longer before morphing into a piercing screech. The ten men around Appo stood uneasily, glaring back and forth at each other. One lifted his finger, scratched from the tip of his finger to his palm. As blood dripped down his forearm, the man laughed. The laugh slowly became a cry, and as he looked deeper into his palm, his sobs became screams. The others followed, becoming a chorus of screams. Appo joined them, his jaw becoming unhinged.

“ They were all screaming before long ”

The tomb and the screaming man vanished, and Appo was back in the field of flowers. Only now it was lit aflame. Beyond the wall, the pyramids of Zabukama burned, its smoke obscuring the entire city in a hazy ash. The siege engines collapsed under the weight of their burning rubble, crushing the occupants inside. Through the field, hordes of screamers engulfed the soldiers. There must have been at least ten thousand, trampling all before them. Appo tried to cover his eyes and ears again, but it made no difference. He heard and saw all.

“ But then it all stopped ”

Appo was back in the void. In front of him was Lowya, crying in solitude. The body below her was gone, and the light dimmed to a faint glimmer. She folded her arms in front of her, rocking herself from side to side.

“ I was alone. Trapped in the very grave I helped dig ”

Appo approached Lowya, who paid no mind to him. He stepped over ether as he found her, pulling her body close to his. Lowya sobbed into his tunic as Appo patted her golden hair.

Then Lowya looked up at Appo. He didn’t see one face. He saw only a blur: hundreds of faces morphing into each other instantaneously. He knew it was the faces of thousands of Ashfolk that he had passed by, ones only barely remembered. Thousands who had succumbed to the plague, their souls now barely clinging to their rotten bodies. They were here, with him.

Appo shoved Lowya away, and the smooth featureless blur of a face morphed into a lumpy scar tissue. Her frame grew and her white dress gave way to gangly black appendages. Black claws scratched at its hips, still stained with Isbibarra’s blood.

When Appo awoke from his dream, the Lhugal remained standing over him.