As the companions passed beyond the thin line of guards, the ground itself ceased to shudder, and with a horrifying crack began to disintegrate, lumps of rock falling away, slowly at first, and then faster, as the destruction crawled toward them. It stopped perhaps fifty feet away, a ragged half-moon gouge into the mass of the skycity.
In the darkness, it was possible to see the burning wreckage that formed part of Adeinia tumble through the sky, arcing out above the farm fields dotting the valley floor. A series of distant, muted, thumps, could be heard as the first pieces of the skycity crashed into the ground, soon afterwards interspersed with faraway screams and snaps as the debris found the village below. As the company watched, the first flickers of fire sprung up on the ground below, the flames from the skyfall setting the village alight.
Those who lived in Adeinia watched the carnage in silence. They had seen this all too often, seen what had happened to their society in the years and decades since the collapse of Arhosa. And now they were left behind by loved ones to face harsh truths: where once there was a living community, a home, for the people gathered about them, there is nothing but open air.
