A Court of Wind and Song

12: Water

Cassian

That laughter and teasing mood had fizzled out and died.

Aelius was not hit too hard, a few fires and cracks in the ground as earthquakes had hit. But Adhira, the eastern territory of Solarea, Leur's former home... it was in complete and utter shambles.

The first time I had come here, I had been completely and utterly amazed by how much there was to these lands. As vast as the Continent, if not more so, and yet- it was all one country. Rolling hills, farmlands, seas of all hues of blue, deserts, snow capped mountains, there was everything here. Sheer size beyond imagine.

And every single inch of it was wrong.

Wildfires burned, storms raged out of nowhere, earthquakes tumbled the ground, tornadoes scoured the earth beneath them. Rivers flooding and dams bursting, and there was so much chaos, in nearly every single village that Nesta and I flew over.

I said nothing, and neither did she.

Occasionally we stopped and helped put out a fire or clear citizens from crumbling rubble. But we kept pushing east, would keep pushing until we found my sister. And we were a few hundred miles away from the shoreline when that familiar voice called out in my head.

Cassian! She screamed, over and over again, as if she had been doing so until her power could reach me, Cassian!

Where are you? I pushed the thought out as far as I could, screamed it, hoped she would find my mind from wherever she was.

I was right, her reply coming short and quick, Find me. Hurry.

Directions appeared in my head, memories of where to go. The cadence of her voice was enough to send my heart pounding, instinct taking over me.

"Hold on." I said to Nesta, gripping her to me as tight as I could.

And then I flew.

I think the only time I had ever moved this fast was the day of the final battle, when I could feel Nesta calling for me, could have sworn I heard her voice screaming in the distance. That was the only time that my wings had pumped this hard, that I had caught such speed. Windstorms, thunder and hail, it did not matter. I blasted through every inch of it with a shield of red.

Cassian. Leur reached for me again, Please hurry.

I'm coming. I answered her, Wait for me, okay? I'm coming as fast as I can.

Whatever was bad enough to make my sister, objectively the most powerful being I knew, to make her falter like this... it was bad.

Power or not, I would go.

I didn't particularly care if Leur had turned into the Mother herself, she was still my sister. And when she needed me, when she called for me- I would always be there.

And when I finally reached the destination she had ingrained in my head, the eastern shores of Adhira, I heard Nesta gasp in shock. My wings faltered for a moment, horror running through my body.

A wave that had to be nearly 200 feet tall was pounding onto the shoreline, desperately trying to creep up the beach. It stretched as far as I could see in either direction, relentless depths of blue foaming at the bit.

And in front of it, just a tiny speck on an empty beach, Leur was holding it at bay with a wall of golden light and violet power. A memory flashed in my head, of her with that ancient blade in her hand, holding the relentless attack from the Cauldron back, the King's final command to wipe us all out.