Contents
Chapter 6 — Isla
Overview
Isla and Lark are captured by scavengers in the ruined otherworld where their powers barely function. Isla briefly frees herself and recovers her gear, glimpsing visions of the world’s vibrant past turned to ash. Re-captured, she witnesses a deadly sand creature kill two captors, confirming the realm’s lethal volatility and Cronan’s likely devastation.
Summary
Isla and Lark are overpowered by silent scavengers in gray, stripped of weapons and armor, bound to a cart, and dragged across an ashen desert where Isla’s power fails. Even Lark, once unstoppable, struggles to breathe and heal, signaling the world’s oppressive rules.
Feigning collapse, Isla is tossed into the cart of corpses—victims seemingly torn by portals—where she steals a dagger and cuts her bonds. Hidden by the tarp, she retrieves Cronan’s sword, the god-bone, her storms orb, and pieces of armor, then slips off the cart. She frees Lark, intending to kill her to seize her power, but keeps her hatred contained to focus on escape.
When Isla tries to finish Lark with the god-bone, the ash itself drags Isla back to the scavengers, who wrench away her reclaimed items and retie her. As they march, Isla experiences vivid overlays of mountains and lush forests—glimpses of what the realm once was—realizing entire histories were reduced to dust, likely by Cronan.
Resolved to save her world and spare Grim from further destruction in her name, Isla steels herself, thinking of Oro’s steady love and refusing the prophecy that demands she choose one lover to kill. The tremoring sands then erupt with danger: a scavenger is yanked under and instantly drained of all fluid, leaving only shrunken skin; another dies the same way before a companion kills the subterranean creature.
Shaken but alive, Isla notes Lark’s eerie calm as the group abandons the bodies and continues on, confirming this world’s predatory hazards and the captors’ fear, while Isla remains powerless, hunted, and determined to forge her own fate.
Who Appears
- IslaProtagonist; captured, briefly escapes to reclaim gear, sees visions of the world’s past, and survives a sand creature attack.
- Lark CrownIsla’s ancestor and foe; wounded, smirkingly calm, her power muted here; freed by Isla but remains captive.
- ScavengersSilent captors wielding sand-based power; strip Isla and Lark, fearful of threats; two are killed by a subterranean creature.
- Subterranean sand creaturePredatory entity that drains victims’ fluids instantly; kills two scavengers before being slain.