• The shadow was coming.


    * * *


    Adanis awoke, his head buzzing, and stared at the rubble above him. He was completely covered by mortar dust and held down by several feet of bricks. He tried vaguely to remember what happened. The first thing he noticed was that he did not appear to be badly injured. Not so much as a cut or a bruise to show his ordeal.
    He slowly tried to push his long jet-black hair out of his eyes and clear a way to the surface. He was surprised again by how insubstantial the weight of the rubble was, it gave way like feathers before him. He stood up and glanced up at the sky. Both of Soligarna’s moons were rising out of the sunset; he must have been unconscious all day.
    Adanis looked down at his clothes; both his trousers and t-shirt were completely wrecked. He dusted them off anyway. Then paused, realising something was missing. The whole city was silent as the grave, nothing stirred, and nothing breathed.
    Adanis looked up, his heart pounding, and saw what remained of Tau-Orlean, the greatest of desert cities. The remnants of buildings were scattered across the ground, along with the ashes of their owners. The bodies of men were strewn across the women and children they had died defending. The rubble, red with blood, covered the streets and the fires blazed either side giving the city a haunted look. The black clouds of smoke filled the streets and cloaked the bodies with its deathly shroud.
    Through the flickering firelight light Adanis drifted, like a ghost, through the barren ruins, numb with shock. The city of millions had been eradicated in just a few hours; none had survived but him.
    He started to run through the streets, not pausing for breath or even to take in his surroundings. Only one thing mattered, getting home. This couldn’t be real, it was all a dream. When he got home everything would be alright. This couldn’t be real. He had to get home!
    The mask of black smoke that clung to the streets billowed as he shot through. His feet pounded the sand as he sped up, ignoring everything but the need to get home. He turned the corner into his street and stopped dead.
    His house was a crater in the ground, debris and ash mingling with the fire. He knew without thinking that his mother had been inside. Everything he had ever known now stood as smouldering ruins around him. He felt the tears well up inside him, driving a deep painful grief into the pit of his stomach. A piece of masonry collapsed next to him, spilling more ash into the sky. A piece of paper laced with fire and blackened with smoke floated down past him. Through his tears Adanis watched the flames rise up consume the last of the words.

    … I’m sorry it’s all over… He’s coming…