I lay on the cool, damp grass as the world bled from orange to a deep, bruised purple. The physical pain was a dull, throbbing chorus in every part of my body, but it was nothing compared to the hollow, echoing ache in my chest. The silence was the worst part. After the constant, looming threat of the Jin'cha and the sudden, violent chaos of the Tian'e, the profound emptiness of the valley was a physical weight. It was the silence of a world that had lost its guardian.
The image of Shi, standing alone in that crater, a golden beacon of defiance against a sea of silver, played over and over in my mind. His final roar. His last order. Run. I had obeyed. I had run like a coward, leaving him to his fate. The guilt was a poison, seeping into my veins, turning my relief at being alive into something sour and shameful.
