The Towers of Adrala

Chapter 2 - The Awakening (Part One)

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The Awakening

“And so everything begins.”

“After everything ends.”

-The Four under the Foundings

Zook felt numb, the silence deafening in his ears.  It was eerie; the many people around him were frozen, listening hard for something that was no longer there.  He felt like he was teetering on a cliff, the fall below him endless into the terrifying unknown. 

This cannot be happening, Zook thought, unable to tear his eyes away from Saranoda.

Magist suddenly shook him, “I want you four to go back to my house.  Now.”

“What?” Zook asked in a daze.

“What's going on Magist?” Pird asked fearfully after he jumped down from his perch.

“There will be much to discuss,” Magist said urgently, “But right now you four must go to the house.”

“Why?” Sye asked.

“Look around you, this city has become a living bomb.  All it needs is one scream to light the fuse.  In the face of the unknown there will be chaos.”

“Magist,” Eris said distantly, “Saranoda...”

“My poor children,” Magist said, reaching out to touch each of them, “Right now you cannot afford to be afraid.  Leave, I will catch up.  Hurry!”

Unable to argue, the four left Magist.  Walking back to the house was like walking though a dream.  Everyone else was still, all looking up at Saranoda.  Their faces were either confused or terrified, marking them as tourist or citizen.  The fountains, the decorations on the houses and the streams carved into the walls spluttered with dying breaths, their dribbling a mockery of their former glory.

Zook's legs moved, but his mind did not.  His ears strained for the rumble's return, his eyes for the city's spray of water.  It was like missing a step on the stairs, the feeling of falling coming late after the missing reassurance of ground.  When they reached Magist's house a sound pierced the silence, stilling them.  The noise was so soft, but in the terrible quiet Zook could have heard a feather floating down.

“Are the falls back?” Pird asked, hope all too apparent in his voice.

“No,” Sye said slowly, “But it is a rumble.”

In the distance, they heard people screaming.  Zook felt a chill at the sound of so many's terror.  As a Healer, he had heard people scream before, but never in such numbers.

“Magist was right,” said Eris quietly.

“It doesn't sound right,” said Sye.

“What do you mean?” Zook asked, taken aback by the strange remark, “Those people are terrified!  I'm terrified!”

“I don't know, it just feels like something's wrong.”

“The falls have stopped!” Zook shouted, familiar anger pleasantly driving out the numbing cold, “Of course something is wrong!”