The Forgotten Light

50. Darksen

He was getting sick of all of that.

Since the events in the arena, his father had lived and breathed nothing else but the Raysun's daughter. One could say that he became obsessed with her abilities. He took detailed notes on what she was able to create, how long it took her, how long things lasted, what she couldn't do, and ideas on what else she could do. However, he never paid attention to how she felt afterwards, and according to Darksen, that was quite important. After all, after she created the crown for the King, she was fine and went back to work, while when she put out the fire in the garden, she went back to the dungeon and slept the rest of the day. The insight was fading from her eyes every day she spent in the city and was being replaced by exhaustion. How much more could she stand?

Thandor was so focused on the girl that he even stopped searching for the remnants of the survivors who still lived somewhere in the wild. So now he, without anyone's knowledge, created a portal to Arizona for himself and combed the area alone all night.

Knowing that the entire northern part of the state looked like a desert as a result of the fires, he started from the south, where there was still some chance of survival. 

He wasn't looking for people to get rid of or take captive. On the contrary.

He had been dreaming one and the same dream for some time now. At first it was faint, he barely remembered it, but over time it began to grow stronger and more realistic. Everything was the same, every night, except for one detail. What changed was how the goal was achieved.

And the aim was the girl's death.

He had a strong feeling that something was about to happen, and he felt that to prevent it, he had to find her friends.

He looked at the setting moon, which was about to be full in a few days. It had been almost a month since his life had become more chaotic than it already was.

"How is it, Keiran? You have anything?" he turned to the coming snow leopard.

They had already searched the outskirts of all of Tucson, but apparently the cross that was marked on the map at this location was acute - beyond the walls of the living city, there was nothing there anymore. Houses were flattened, the ground scorched, offering no possible shelter.

The large cat sat next to his leg, making a dull murmur, which meant he didn't sniff out anyone, just as he hadn't before in Sierra Vista, Rio Rico and Green Valley.

Darksen sighed heavily, and although he had the feeling that they would find nothing alive there either, he moved them to the Phoenix area. The image of the passing road flashed around them, as if they were flying through the area at great speed.

He didn't know exactly where they had landed, but from there the lights of the city taken over by the Beings were already visible. As before, he sent Keiran on a search in one direction, and headed in the opposite direction himself. Thanks to the snow leopard, searching the area went much faster - the cat moved with stunning speed, and his sensitive sense of smell made it possible to sniff out the human's trail.

Darksen headed southeast, every now and then opening a portal for himself, which allowed him to make his way through the next stretching miles of wilderness with a single step. Walking along the potholed streets, he passed demolished and burnt houses. Every dozen steps or so he came across abandoned cars, on whose surface a thick layer of dust, sand and ash had settled. He was surprised to see that most of the vehicles were missing doors and there was nothing left under the open hoods. For a long moment he wondered what could have happened to so many engines and dusty sheet metal, but he really had no clue.

Staring at the darkness-covered area, he paid no attention to the ground until he tripped. He looked down and saw a damaged sign. With the tip of his shoe, he turned it over, but it was so dirty that he couldn't read anything from it. So he wiped it with his hand and the name of the city appeared to his eyes.

He was in Florence, another place that was crossed out on the map.

He examined the area in front of him closely, but as far as the eye could see, he saw nothing. If there had ever been a town there, now there was no trace of it.

He lifted the sign from the ground and hung it on the larger half of a broken stake, driving it into the sand. In this way, he let the world know that this was where the town of Florence had once been, and that it should not be forgotten.

Who knew, maybe someday someone would breathe life into the place and the town would come alive again?

Though on the other hand, the sign might as well have been a tombstone....

Knowing that he would find nothing further, he returned to Phoenix just as the sun began to rise. While waiting for Keiran, he walked around the area, examining the remains of a destroyed hall. Under the bent and partially melted sheet metal, he found several workshop tools and a car door. He frowned at the sight of the latter, but before he could contemplate anything, a snow leopard appeared beside him.

"Let me guess - you didn't find anyone," Darksen muttered.

He lowered the tin wall of the defiled building, raising a cloud of dust into the air in the process. The huge cat sat thoughtfully, staring into space far ahead. Darksen put his hand on its head.

"Time to go."

He concentrated on creating a path for them back to the San Diego castle, imagining his own chamber. The portal appeared before them almost immediately and Darksen told Keiran to go ahead.

He himself, before crossing the threshold of the portal, looked back into the emptiness. He was starting to believe that there was nothing left to look for in the cities and towns that were circled on the map. Either they had searched badly or outside the walls that Invicta had surrounded themselves with, there was no longer a living soul on Arizona ground.