The Grey God

Jenn trotted through the orchard towards the city, energized by the plentiful magic in the world around her. Using magic in the mortal world was like trying to swim a channel with arms tied. She'd forgotten how hard the adjustment had been from immortal to mortal world. Here, magic emanated off of everything and filled her with its energy.

The wall dividing the orchard from the city was the first thing she didn't remember. Jenn climbed a tree close to the wall then leapt onto the top of the thick, marble wall. She crouched, catching sight of a guardsman several hundred feet away. The cuneiform symbols on his back were purple, marking him as a servant to the Others. She made sure he continued walking then swung herself over, dropping ten feet on the other side.

What peace she'd found in the familiar orchard fled as she looked at the charred, crumbling ruins of the once great city that lay beyond the wall. Before his enslavement, Darian had reigned over the city, as had his forefathers.

He wouldn't recognize it now. She felt a pang of pain for him at the prospect of seeing what happened to the White God's legacy in the immortal world. The destruction continued for miles without end, as far as she could see. The ashes had long since stopped burning, and the air was still filled with magic. Jenn stepped into the city, at once aware of the sorrow the place held. Unlike the mortal world, everything in the immortal world was alive, even the stones making up the buildings.

She squatted beside a fallen statue of one of Darian's forefathers. One eye still glowed gold, the telltale sign of those born into the White God's family. She patted the statue, feeling the magic cling to her as she rose.

The war between Others and Watchers had destroyed everything in this world, except for the orchard. She wondered what made it immune to the destruction.

Uneasily, she realized this was what the war would do to the mortal world. Jenn hesitated, guilty she'd indulged herself to visit a place she shouldn't instead of protecting the world she was sworn to preserve.

But she didn't look back. Not now. She was close to her goal. She trotted through the streets, making her way through rubble and debris to the park in the center of the city. She vaulted over a low stone wall, landing with a crunch in the dead grass on the other side. The park was over a mile on each side, hedged by a wall. There had been trees and bushes in her time, but none of them remained. Even the stone pathway winding through the stone obelisks was either buried in dirt or missing. Many of the stone obelisks were gone or broken.