Lania Silverthread stood at the highest observation platform of the Ninth Tower, her silver hair whipping violently in winds that shouldn't exist inside the sealed chamber. The once-perfect crystalline windows had developed fractures that spread like hungry veins across their surfaces, distorting the view of the world beyond. Not that there was much world left to see.
Where the sprawling metropolis of Veridian had once stood, only fragments remained—floating islands of reality suspended in a sea of churning dimensional chaos. The sky above had ceased to be blue weeks ago; now it rippled with patterns of impossible colors that hurt the eyes and mind equally.
