Empyrean Iris Story Collection Vol. 4

Casting off Death

It felt like a million years since Tala Kelly had seen Earth, but floating overhead in the planetbound shuttle, she relished every fluffy white cloud and dash of blue sea. The "blue planet" was a lot like she had remembered, though she was saddened to see the scars of war still visible. As they cut over the bank of clouds, vast stretches of land could be seen from space, scarred by the void invasion, all the plantlife dead and the soil charred.

But Earth was resilient, and the wounds on her surface were quickly scabbing over. The livid red she had seen from previous images had faded away as new plant growth sprouted from the soil. The void invasion was the most recent catastrophes in a list of problems the Earth had faced since her disappearance, and she couldn't help but feel that none of this would have happened if she hadn't died.

The realization hurt, and the guilt was real despite none of this being her fault.

She imagined this is what a mother would have felt like leaving her children against her will, still guilty but with an abiding sense of sadness.

Kelly had been doing some reading on the void invasion and the long term effects. Surprisingly enough, the void had not destroyed the livability of the areas it had infected. In fact, dissolved particles from the strange, fleshy substance that had coated the ground had dissolved into the soil making the dirt incredibly fertile. Plantlife was already beginning to spring up from wasted land. New trees had to be planted, but just like the forest after a devastating wildfire, things would recover.

In a way the void had done good things for the land, returning minerals back to the earth that well-farmed dirt hadn't had in a long time. The animals that had been affected were recovering nicely and with no ill side effects except for looking a little mangy for the duration of their hair loss.

So earth itself was recovering just fine.

The greatest devastation had been on the people.

Collective trauma had seen a skyrocketing increase in PTSD, Anxiety, and Panic disorders over the last few months. Thousands of people had been displaced as their houses and lands were completely destroyed. Cities were struggling to handle the influx of visitors from moe rural areas.

But still.

Life moved on.

And just like the aftermath of a hurricane, people were already starting to rebuild, pulling their houses together and making their living on the land that had been scorched and barren. Some of those houses would never be reentered as the homeowners couldn't go back to the scene of such horror, but others were determined to stay put. The residents of Orion Mericanda were some of the hardest hit, being so close to the epicenter.

Adam Vir's place of origin had been nearly destroyed, but with a hefty sum of donations from Arcadia, it was getting back on its feet, and the people were slowly beginning to return. The crop conglomerate that surrounded Orion was already making plans to plant this year, and even add a few new crops now that the soil was more conducive.

Things would recover.

They generally did.

But they would do better if she was there.

Soon the curvature of the earth vanished behind a bank of clouds, and the shuttle rocked gently around her and Hye. He reached out absently to hold her hand, face pressed up against the window as they descended from the sky, "Look, sunlight!"

Kelly smiled and patted his arm, "Look an ocean."

"I'm going to go look at some fish!"

His excitement had her smiling. He had been working very hard on Arcadia's inland sea, and the project was both tiresome and frustratingly complicated. It would be nice for him to get away and touch some real earth fish.