Lilou is gone, her beautiful hair sizzled to nothing, her smooth skin blackened and split, her body twisted and melted into something horrible, and dead. There are Kin who might have been able to save some of her mind, absorb her memories and fears, her dreams and desires, but none of them are here. She died in this barren human place, knowing that her best friend did the killing.

He takes some comfort knowing that she experienced only a moment of pain before her brain was fried and everything she was turned to heat, gas and fire. He does not like to contemplate that moment.

Mallian does not have many friends left, and losing one like this is a harsh lesson on his journey to Ascent.

“You could have been here with me,” he says. He looks at Grace, standing slumped and weak a few steps from him. She’s also looking at him, but her eyes are vacant and hollow, staring into a place he hopes never to see. She appears weak, but he bears the weight of her great power inside, and understands that she is stronger than even he can ever understand. She is terrifying. He has already seen and used some of her strength, and in the days to come he will use so much more.

He has to take his time. Ascent is not about him, it is about the Kin, so he needs more of them here to shoulder the burden and share the glory. He cannot rush into a future he has craved for so long.

He blinks, and in that single moment he sends a message via the fairy and her vast, complicated mind. Thorn, my old pixie friend, I’m back in the world and our time is at hand. I hope you’ve managed to fulfil your task. If you have, meet me here, and Ascent will rise from the dirt of a forgotten place. He looks down at Lilou and touches her with his foot again. His toes sink in. He feels heat from fire, not from her living, striving flesh. That part of her is cold. We will rise from the ashes.

Grace twitches once and the message is sent. Mallian smiles. He has never experienced so much power.

He sends another thought, and Grace turns her gaze on the three Kin who emerged from the buried structure. He can feel their mindless rage, the frightening violence coiled in their shrivelled limbs and coursing through their old veins. Grace opens their minds to him, and he recoils as he reads the truth.

Humans did that to them.

They were poisoned and changed, turned from gentle creatures into the monsters that humans always see. Then they were gassed, buried and forgotten.

Humans will reap what they have sown.