The Voyage of the Astral Wind by Bross Samuel A

Author:Bross, Samuel A. [Bross, Samuel A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-10-19T00:00:00+00:00

The Springs

​I was only a moment away from sleep. Too much had happened to stay awake any longer by my own efforts, but I still kept my eyes open. I was hurt, probably dying, and incapable of moving. I was falling, and although I had become somewhat desensitized to the adrenaline of the descent, it was what kept me from my slumber. I did not fear it, however. It was like being carried by a strange force, a gravity that didn’t pull me so quickly it would slam me into the surface below. Like drifting in a wavy lake, through clear and gentle currents.

​I didn’t see where I went. My head was turned to the sky and the clouds that extended upwards as if to reach the stars. I could not move myself to see and know my path, and it seemed that the last I ever saw of the knight and the three champions was the second I had obtained the ring and punished the thief.

​Ahh, I thought. But the knight is right here with me now. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that the shape-shifting sword was in my left hand, sticking there with a stubbornness when even my inability to hold onto it was gone. Despite that, the lights were dim and less lively. Indeed, it was sentient, and it was a fitting opponent. A fitting friend. Our story likely wasn’t over, but now I just wanted to sleep after the fall ended.

​Rotations. I was rotating in the air. Not fast enough to see the other people who had drifted out of sight, I saw the aftermath of all the fighting like the set pieces of a stage rolling into view with synchronized movement. The desert had become mists of sparkling gray with debris from the buildings cluttering the view. This was all around, but thinner in some places. The cubes were huge for things that must fall, even if I had already seen the barge.

​One sight that nearly brought tears to my eyes was the crumbling statue. Her parts were spread out across the pit, and her limbs were placed, whenever intact, entirely by chance, as if to appear like an expression of what I felt. Her face smiled, and her arms were scattered out from her detached torso with palms to the sky, towards me. Finality and death in one pose.

​And then I felt incredibly warm, for I saw the crumbling coliseums. I was going through the tunnel where the floor of the Arena had been now, the last of the bunch to make it as the people below fell first. The audience watched from their seats as they got up and left, trying to get one last look at us all. Eventually, they were gone behind the walls of the once arena, and I was left to my feelings, the feelings that overcame me when I noticed I was drifting through the air with so many other fighters. We were fish in this sea, surrounded by the purple coral beds that the clouds were gently becoming.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.