The storm had not ceased for three relentless days.
Lightning danced ceaselessly over the jagged peaks of the Valean mountains, casting an eerie glow through the roiling black clouds. Every crack of thunder rolled like a drumbeat, shaking the earth beneath their feet as if something ancient, something long dormant, had finally stirred from its slumber deep beneath the soil.
And indeed, something had.
In the crater where the first bolt of lightning had struck, the rain fell in sheets, but not a single drop touched the ground. The air above the crater shimmered, repelling the falling water like an invisible shield. Inside that strange bubble, the earth was dry, untouched by the storm.
At the center, Cambria Vale knelt in perfect stillness.
