Weight of the World

Chapter One

—Medyulana—

Impossibly, the gate to the Garden of Starlight burst open. After all her searching, after a lifetime of desperate hoping, finally, finally, what she desired was within reach. But the cost of it all made her footsteps falter. A choice. Made in a panicked moment when the world was crumbling around her. Had she made the right choice? The Garden or Idelle. Her dad or her lover. Did she choose correctly? Was there even a correct choice to make? Or were both equally evil in their own way? Her heart was heavy, but Ori was struggling above her, each passing second ticking closer to the moment the gate would close. She couldn't linger, couldn't falter. She had to move faster. A moment of white light filled her vision as she stepped through the rift into the Garden. Her eyes adjusted quickly. What Lulu saw made her heart skip a beat.

The stories her Aunt Teryn had told her had described a ruined paradise littered with rubble of a destroyed temple and bodies of friends strewn about. She had expected to find it in the same condition, a moment frozen in time. Yet, what she found was nothing as she imagined.

The temple was utterly destroyed, just as her Aunt Teryn had said. There were pieces that remained standing, but it looked as though the slightest movement would send them toppling. But there were no bodies, no remains left discarded beneath the starry sky above. A few steps further in and Lulu found, instead, a neat row of graves lined up, one next to another.

Five, in total. The graves were simple, mounds of grass that were lined with white rocks. At the center of each was another stone, separate from the rest. Each had a name etched into its face. All were names she recognized from Aunt Teryn's stories.

Soren. Thralur. Irendir. Rostgarr. Tanith. It was the last name that made her pause. Tanith had been their enemy, had been the sole cause of their conflict in the Garden, and had helped pushed the empire into war. Why, then, was she buried alongside the others?

The question was only flitting through her mind. Outside the Garden, she could still hear the roar of aether as Ori held this place suspended between worlds. She had to hurry. She couldn't linger. She needed to find her dad. He had been the only one left in the Garden when the gate shut, meaning he had been the one to dig those graves. He had been alive for some time after the gate had shut. A sense of hope filled her.

*************

The silence was painful. It pierced deeper than any blade possibly could, bleeding her dry with every new step she took. Lulu never watched where she was walking, never paid attention to the passing of their surroundings. She could look nowhere else than the sight of long raven hair swaying with each step Uncle Baloren took. He walked ever-forward in utter silence, never straying from his path, never slowing, never stopping. His tears had stopped the moment he had picked Ori up, his sapphire gaze cold and dead as he had brushed past Lulu without so much as a sideways glance.

*************

Ori screamed for her to hurry. Lulu frantically searched the Garden. There had to be a clue as to where her dad was. Something. Anything. She raced from the graves, around the temple, but he was nowhere to be seen. He had to be here somewhere. Turning, she heard Ori's screams growing more frantic. Time was running out.

The river up ahead. Her dad had grown up near the ocean. He loved the water. Perhaps—She raced forward, desperately hoping that some sort of clue would be there. She didn't have the luxury of time to search the entire Garden. He had to be here. He had to—