Discordant Note: Crescendo | TBATE

Chapter 276: Lavatide

Thank you to my beta reader and editor, GlassThreads!

Toren Daen

It was like a volcano had erupted underground. The far wall screamed its vengeance and fury, a wave of heat making me shift in the air. A hundred streams of lava fifty feet thick spewed like geysers, the glow in the cavern banishing the dark.

Our fight caused this, I realized immediately, sensing how the disturbed ambient mana shifted and changed. The rumbling sound of earthquakes and terrified heartbeats resounded in my ears.

I barely had time to think as I took in the situation. Most of those heartbeats were already far away from the tide of lava, rushing toward the farthest walls. Evacuating.

And on what platforms did remain of Burim, dwarves and my fellow Alacryans were working to conjure steps and bridges to allow an evacuation. Before I'd even arrived, the entire city had been in a full-swing exodus.

Visions of fire and plague flashed in my mind; of innocents overcome by my hubris. I remembered the utter devastation that swept away Fiachra as Mardeth enacted his plans. The scent of the smoke was just the same as it ravaged my nostrils, the gouts of splattering magma gleaming in slow motion.

I remembered the times I'd strolled in the Undercrofts, feeling the sorrow of the downtrodden dwarves. Seeing a struggle reflected across both continents and tore at my heart. And even high above in the Overcrofts where countless men and women worked to extend their lives or fight for what they thought was right.

Soleil's Bloodtie slammed into my mind like hot coals pressed into a gaping wound. The aftermath of his duel with the Indrath, where those he sought to protect were burned away from the simple clashes of phoenix and dragon. The sheer collateral scale of it–

The world rumbled again, magma flowing in a forty-foot-tall tide along the ground that continued to grow in height. It swept away every stalagmite it crossed in an expanse a mile wide, glowing with a vengeance as those heartbeats sought to escape it. It was loud; far, far louder than I thought it had any right to be. It was like the sound of a thousand train wheels on tracks. Rumbling and roaring and crushing in a way that drowned out even my thoughts. And it couldn't be stopped, couldn't be averted by any force of man.

"You must act!" my mother's voice surged through my mind and aloud, overriding the tumble of crushing stone. "Toren, you must act! Do not freeze in fire!"

I shuddered, snapping back into focus as I looked at the phoenix shade in her automaton. "You read about this, Toren! You know what must be done!"

My eyes snapped to the horrified Chul, then back to the ground. Priorities.

I ground my teeth, then flapped my wings. Aurora was right. I had read about this. There were protocols in place for evacuation of all the folk of the Undercrofts, and–

There.

Through the terrified tremble of the heartbeats all about Burim, there was an anomaly. A group who, despite the clashing dance of white fire embers and melting rock from high above, had been acting.

I blurred down in a streak of light as I noticed them. Rahdeas knelt over Olfred's body as it bled, surrounded by a dozen people barely past a panic. Distantly, I was aware of Jotilda, Lusul, and a few others as they shied away from my burning aura.

All around us, arks of conjured stone sat ready, many filled with terrified dwarves already. Once the lavatides reached this point, they'd be swept up and carried along toward the sea.

My glimmering wings reflected the light as I stalked forward, the ambient mana flexing and warping around me. I released Soulplume, unwilling to strain myself unnecessarily, but everyone still parted for me as if I were the lavatide.