Ember and Ash

Verve does not send its champions on assignments lightly. When Auren is dispatched to the outer Ashfields — the furthest edge of anything resembling mapped territory — the briefing is unusually sparse. Secure the eastern perimeter. Report what you find. Return within seven days. What the briefing does not mention is what the previous three scouts reported before going silent.

People who have never been to the Ashfields imagine a wasteland. Scorched ground, ruins, emptiness. The reality is more unsettling than emptiness. The Ashfields are alive — not with people, but with something the Breaking left behind. Energy that moves with apparent purpose. Structures that were destroyed and are, in some slow and inexplicable way, rebuilding themselves into shapes that do not match their original forms. Auren has been trained to work in hostile environments. He has not been trained for this.

Seven days into what was meant to be a seven-day mission, Auren finds what the scouts found. He understands immediately why they did not come back. Not because they were killed. Because of what they were shown, and the question it poses — a question that has no good answers, only less terrible ones. He stands at the edge of it for a long time. Then he turns around and walks back to report, carrying something heavier than what he arrived with.