A cosmic adventure
Overseer Alashi Shiva of Ashtan polished his glasses and released a long sigh. The artisans and builders settled on a plan and moved at once to clear the latest heap of rubble after the recent incursion. Dust still drifted from the broken stone and each footfall sent a dull echo across the ruins. Alashi surveyed the wreckage and rubbed a smear of grit from his sleeve while the workers hauled shattered beams into neat stacks.
A sudden pressure tightened the air above the plaza. Colours warped around a single point and the space tore open with a sharp crack. A portal split the air in front of him and surged outward in a violent bloom, bursting into a thousand panes of glass that spun through the light before they fell and disappeared on impact. The shockwave rattled the loose rubble and sent a few fragments skittering toward his boots.
Pandora, the Wayward Heir, stepped through the fading shimmer with brisk purpose. Stray flecks of colour trailed behind each step and scattered over the broken stone. She cast a quick glance at the gathered workers before She fixed Her attention on Alashi. Her expression held the same bright energy that usually precedes trouble, and the plaza answered her arrival with a faint crackle that crawled across the ground.
“Want to go on an adventure?”
Started, Alashi rushed to his feet. How can a man refuse a Goddess?
Pandora drew Alashi beyond the skies and did not allow a simple pause for breath. Witnesses reported a tear of pale colour widening above the world before the pair vanished into its heart. Their trail left a thin shimmer that clung to the horizon for several minutes.
Their journey began on the edge of a dying world. Suspended in the void of space, they watched as fault lines burned across the surface of the planet and each tremor sent entire landmasses drifting into the void. Pandora held the scene for Alashi and pushed him to watch the final break. Light flooded the dark as the world shattered and scattered across the stellar gulf.
“Beautiful isn’t it? Makes you think. Do you wait for the terrible, beautiful end, or should you enjoy life to the fullest until then?” Pandora mused with a mischievous grin, already knowing Her answer.
She hurled them onward before the glow dimmed. Their next stop carried them over a Sartai homeland where an immense mountain swelled and pulsed. The ground tremored with a rising pressure and the air shook with constant rumble. Lava churned beneath the stone and threatened the settlement below. Pandora did not intervene. She only marked the moment and set it into Alashi’s memory before dragging him away again, leaving the devotees of Sartan to prepare for survival of the fittest.
“The Sartai here have dominated the lands for millenia, and yet here their existance may end. I wonder who will survive?”
Their third destination brought them to Yahan. Towers of pale stone rose from the plains and the city moved in perfect order beneath them. Every judgement began and ended with the sacred Sceptre of Yahn and its High Priest. Alashi realised that Pandora was no longer there, and yet an unmistakable figure watched the ritual from the shadows, gliding through the crowded hall without disturbing a single devotee. When the High Priest raised the relic for the closing rite, She stepped forward and claimed it with a clean sweep of Her hand. Alashi watched agape as She raced through the corridors and fled into the open sky to join him.
The pair returned to Ashtan hours later. A ripple of colour rolled across the firmament as the breach sealed and the wind carried a faint crackle that lingered over the continents. Pandora did not offer an explanation for the theft or the tour of collapsing world, just simply tossed the stolen relic to the Overseer and disappeared into thin air with a tinkling laugh.
Meanwhile, on the planet of Yahan, the High Priest reclined in his chair as society collapsed around him. The one image burning in his third eye, the face of Alashi Shiva.
Penned by My hand on the 18th of Daedalan, in the year 991 AF.