The Ascension

...And a desert oasis

 They stayed the rest of the day on the hill, camping somewhat lower so they did not run the risk of seeing the wastes ahead of them. It was a long and silent night, worse for Aster because she did not sleep. She had hours to wrack her brain. Question herself for a lack of grief.

The best explanation was that it was related to the shot, that the gods had done this to her. But that answer didn't put her mind at rest. Lately, it seemed like she'd never find rest. The obligation to stay in one spot, wait for her companion to wake, seemed a burden of a duty. She wasn't tired anymore. She could probably run forever.

But she waited, and the next morning matched the previous night- long and quiet. Wren seemed better. Probably looking at the destruction hidden by the mountain would have triggered another bout of angry depression, but he was wise enough to avoid such things.

"Where are we heading next?" Senya asked. He caught up to Aster, who had been leading the group, and held her hand. She looked about immediately, but couldn't see any signs of Ikina.

"The south, I guess. Been everywhere else."

"True, but do we have some sort of aim here? A goal to work towards?"

"We need to stop Aera." Wren said. "So let's wake Aelen."

"I'm not sure having two horrible demons roaming the earth will do much good, per se." Senya said.

"No, they'll fight, and defeat each other."

"I don't think they're evenly matched. I mean, they'll probably fight, but one will win, and then we're back to the same place we began." Senya said.

"In addition, it will take time before they find each other and begin to fight, so there will be mass destruction then. And likely when they fight, it'll be on land, or a coast, and bring with it even more ruin." Aster said.

"Plus, it'll keep Ikina alive, and I feel like it's our group's goal to stop that from happening." Senya added.

"But it could save lives." Wren insisted. "Either we try something terrible, or Aera definitely will destroy the world. We can't fight it ourselves. So we'll wake a monster to do it for us."

"Fine." Aster said. "You're right, I mean, and we have nothing else to do. So let's give it a shot. How do you wake these things anyway?" She looked over to Senya.

"It's- It was fairly simple. I'm not sure how someone hadn't woken the thing earlier. I only had to stand in there for a bit and talk to it, and wait a bit, and there it was. Laila was there- I suppose she might have had a role in it."

"So I guess Silan will be in Ae-ah? And he'll help us?"

"Guess so. But there has to be more to it than nothing." Aster said. She looked to Senya, who merely shrugged and shook his head. "Now, how exactly do you think we're going to cross Sved?"

"Find a boat? There's no way we'll be able to sneak into Sved, let alone cross it." Senya said.

"I don't think now is a good time to explain to you which city was the major boating city in the northern hemisphere."

"Let's just try and cross. You two still have the gods paying attention to you, right? And we're maybe still immortal as well. Unless Ikina took us off that list. But still, we try and cross, and if anyone stops us just grab their wrist and point to the gods."

"That's another crazed and dubious theory for you to suggest, Wren." Aster said. "I've never thought you to be the type."

Wren was silent. It then sunk in to Aster that perhaps this change from careful and caring to apathetic and daring might not have been a good change for Wren to go through.