After allowing himself to sleep in and have a late breakfast Drake dressed himself in his finery; a nice set of clothes with puffy trousers and sleeves, colored green, red and gold. Only the shirt was glamerweave and depicted a moving pattern of cogs and gears turning that occasionally caused magic winds to blow across the fabric, changing the pattern layout. The pattern moved faster and slower with how fast or slow the wearer moved. In terms of jewelry he had a plain silver chain necklace with an amulet depicting the Mark of Making, silver buttons, and a nice gold brooch to hold the side cape over his left arm in place. To top it all off was a pair of thin, black leather gloves with silver thread embroidery. No self respecting Cyran would show themselves outside without gloves.

All in all the outfit was on the more modest side of Cyran fashion, though hopefully Lycia wouldn't mind. Drake viewed himself in the mirror and tried to correct every faulty detail that he could find. After a while it seemed like that strand of hair or that wrinkle on his trousers wouldn't stay fixed and he gave up.

He bid his mother and sister goodbye for the day and started his walk out to the countryside. It would be about twenty minutes walk to the ir'Tylein's home, and would bring him outside the city's protective dome. After about ten minutes he could see their estate standing atop one of the flatter and wider hills outside Eston. It wasn't the largest mansion he had seen but it certainly had more than enough room for a large family and a couple of servants. A brick wall surrounded the foot of the hill and the only way inside was through a large metal gate some hundred feet off the main road.

Drake stopped for a brief moment to gather his courage. As he did he heard something roaring in the wind, something that almost sounded like dark wailing. Looking around he saw in the distance beyond the ir'Tylein's estate and along the horizon was a large, grey, ominous cloud that stretched from the ground to the sky. It looked like some kind of strange storm and it was billowing towards Eston at an alarming pace. Being outside the protective dome he'd surely be thrashed by that storm. He started to make his way towards the ir'Tylein's mansion with even faster steps.

As the storm grew closer he noticed something strange: the large wall of smoke had humanoid faces shifting in and out of the clouds. Each one looked to be screaming in pain and sorrow. Fear gripped him and chilled him more than the frigid wind. Drake began to run as fast as his legs could carry him.

The ground shook. At first a few small quakes that were barely noticeable. A few seconds later the ground erupted into a thunderous earthquake. Drake fell forward and barely managed to catch himself on all four. The ground continued to shake so violently that when he tried to get up he fell down on his side. Screams of panic could be heard from the ir'Tylein mansion. The storm grew closer and its loud winds almost drowned out the screams. The ir'Tylein house that was beginning to break down. The large, dead grey fog swallowed the house and the screams came to an unsettling and abrupt stop. A couple seconds later the fog swept over Drake and he felt the air get sucked out of his lungs. Filled with panic he desperately tried to draw the air back down. It hurt. The air burnt his throat and lungs. It was like breathing in a cloud of tiny, heated glass shards. He coughed hard and tried to draw another breath. It still hurt but he managed to keep the air in his lungs a little bit longer before he coughed again.

For what felt like several minutes all he could focus on was his breathing. The thunder of the earthquake became background noise. How it seared his throat and lungs. But for every breath it became easier to draw in the air. When he finally managed to breath almost normally the surroundings had become silent and still. His vision was foggy and dizzying.

Slowly Drake crawled onto all four before he tried to stand. His legs were weak like a machine with unfastened axes that's running low on fuel. First attempt at standing resulted in him almost immediately falling to the side where he barely managed to catch himself with his arm. Second attempt worked much better as he managed to stand up and even take a couple of steps before he fell down on one knee.

Drake began muttering curses as he tried to gather enough strength to get up and keep walking. It seemed to help a little. At the very least the irritation and anger spurred him on to take one more step, followed by another.

After wandering for what he felt like must only have been a few yards he stumbled upon the gate leading to the ir'Tylein's estate. It was bent and tilted, and had partially sunk into the ground. Drake could do little more than lean against it and chake the bars a little, which did nothing but cause a slight metallic rustle.

"Gil!" he shouted, making his throat tighten followed by coarse coughing. No answer came. "Gil!" The only sound to be heard was more coughing of Drake followed by the thud of a rock hitting earth in the distance. "Gil!.. Lycia!.. ir'Tylein!" Nothing.

Several long, dead silent minutes passed before Drake gave up. His vision was finally starting to go back to being sharp. His lungs and throat didn't hurt as much and his muscles didn't feel so weak anymore. Instead he felt a sharp itching on the back of his right hand. He ignored it as he began to walk back on the road. Surely the city was still safe. The protective dome was made to safeguard Eston from any storm. Though the earthquake might have destroyed that. Not that he had any better idea on where to go.

As he walked the road the itching began to appear in spots all over his body. He scratched whenever he could. When he scratched his left cheek he felt something weird. Running a finger over the spot he felt a hard surface, like glass. Even more strange he could vaguely feel his finger when he touched the glass. Panic and fear began to grip him even more. His breathing became more frantic. This was wrong. What was happening to him?

He picked up the pace and tried to ignore the itching. Occasionally he brought up his finger to feel the glass on his left cheek and it was growing, both out as well as up towards his left temple. Every spot that had been itching was growing some form of crystal formation. Eventually he tore off his right glove to see what it looked like; it was shaped like wild crystal, surface smooth like glass, with a bright green color shifting as if a cloud swirled just beneath its surface. Drake stared at the crystal for a long moment in horrified disbelief before he put the glove back on.

The city was just out of view. He could make out the silhouette of the buildings in the distance through the thick, sickly grey fog. As he drew closer he could see that the town had not been spared. Lots of houses lay half in ruin. An entire district on the left side had fallen into a giant sinkhole. Worst of all it was as dead quiet as the ir'Tylein's estate was.

"Mom! Dad! Nyl!" he shouted. When no answer came he fell to his knees. This wasn't real. It was too absurd to be real. He was just having a bad, drunken nightmare. Tears began to flow down his cheeks. Drake didn't care to hide the sobs. "Mom… Dad… Nyl…" he whispered to himself.

"Drake!" he heard a familiar voice shout a bit further down the road. It was Nyl.

Invigorated with energy he didn't think he had he quickly stumbled up on his feet and began to run. Beyond some thick patch of fog he spotted Nyl was standing further down the road. She looked scared and confused but otherwise unharmed. When she saw Drake come running towards her she recoiled and froze in shock. But Drake still ran up and embraced her in his arms anyway. His tears still flowed but the sobs quieted down.

"Nyl…" he whispered.

"What happened? To you." Hesitantly she slowly and stiffly returned the hug.

"I don't… know." Drake took a deep breath and ceased the sobbing. "Mom? Dad?"

"Dead… Everyone is…" Her voice broke off as she came close to breaking into tears as well.

They stood there for a long time in each other's arms in this wasteland of magic wrought insanity. Drake managed to calm his breathing and soon his lungs didn't hurt at all anymore. When his tears had finally run dry he slowly broke off the hug. "We can't stay."

"Where shall we go?"

"I do not know. Away. Anywhere but here."

Nyl looked around and Drake did the same. The fog made it hard to see far in any direction and beyond a certain distance all that could be made out were shadowy outlines. The city loomed tall like an eerie and tyrannical ghost in the distance. The mere thought of going back to see the devastation filled Drake with dread, but they'd need supplies for their journey. Maybe they could even find and use a skycoach.

Without a word Drake began to make his way towards Eston but stopped when he noticed Nyl wasn't following. Looking back he could see that she was deeply hesitant and afraid to go back there.

"Want to wait here?"

She looked around once more before shaking her head. "No," she said in a low voice. Slowly her feet began to move and soon she was caught up and walking besides her brother.

The streets of Eston were littered with dead bodies. They had no signs of wounds or torment. It was if they had dropped dead as soon as the storm had hit them. Their unblinking, vacant eyes staring into the distance were especially unsettling. A couple of bodies had some holes torn in their clothes as if something had burst out of them, leaving behind what looked like a web of dark silver. Another had partially sunken down and fused with the paved street.

Piles of rubble littered the streets and alleys, and most buildings were at least partially collapsed. Almost all windows were broken. One building that had fared rather well had still had a skycoach crash into its roof. To their luck their own home was mostly intact. Nyl refused to enter. Drake didn't blame her.

Tables and chairs inside the café were knocked over and a few customers lay dead on the floor. Carefully stepping over them and going to the café kitchen he saw his mother lying on the floor in front of the kitchen counter. She lied on her back with her eyes staring unfocused up towards the roof. It was clear she had been in the middle of baking as her hands were white with flour.

The sight made Drake freeze and a few tears flowed down his cheeks again. He knelt gently down besides her as the sobs returned. An idea popped into his head and he took up his lodestones. It should not work. But with all the unexplainable madness surrounding him he had a small hope that there might be a positive break in reality.

He tried to cast the mending spell a couple of times. Though all in vain as nothing happened. The magic faded at his fingertips as it always did when it found no object to mend.

As the small hope faded Drake lingered in silence. He wanted to cry but his tear ducts were dry. After a long moment he instead closed her eyes, dusted off the flour from her hands and arranged her arms over her chest. A solemn resting position. The least he could do.

He continued up to the living area of the house where he took his and Nyl's old backpacks and went to fill them with food. Opening the pantry revealed some disturbing surprises. Most shocking of all was a piece of dried up meat that had gained large insect legs and crawled out as soon as Drake opened the door. Some hard bread had turned into dirty glass. In general half the food had in some way changed for the strange. The other half seemed fine. What had or hadn't been changed seemed completely random.

Once he had both backpacks filled with all the edible food he went back out only to his horror see Nyl's hands engulfed in dark blue flame.

"Drake!" She screamed in panic. "I just rubbed my hands together… and the flames just… appeared!" She held out her hands in front of her as she stared at them in shock and disbelief.

The flame didn't seem to harm her in any way though. Even her cloth gloves weren't burning up in the slightest. But as Drake came closer and carefully reached out with his hand he felt the intense heat of fire and quickly retracted his arm.

"Can you… try to turn it off?"

"How?"

"I don't know… Try to relax. Maybe?"

Nyl closed her eyes and began taking deep breaths. After a few seconds she opened her eyes to see that the flames were still going. "Come on!" she yelled in frustration.

Drake took a deep breath himself. "Hold out your arms to the side."

Nyl did as told. "Like this?"

"Hmm." Drake took her backpack and held the strap out as far as possible before swiftly putting it around one of her arms. He felt the heat almost burn him but managed to escape unharmed. The second arm was a bit more tricky but now that Nyl knew what he wanted to do she was able to move her arm quickly enough to put the other strap in place.

"Wait!" she exclaimed. "My violin!" Nyl took a deep breath and let out a sigh. "Forget it. Not worth it."

Drake gave her an apologetic look. He knew how much that violin meant to her. With a little luck they could perhaps return for it one day.

With that they started to walk towards the plaza on the other side of town. It was a difficult journey. Some streets had cracked and either sunken down or raised, making some paths inaccessible without a ladder or similar. Halfway on the way the flames around Nyl's hand went out to boths great relief.

The plaza was rather intact. The ground had no cracks and the buildings directly connected to the plaza were almost all fully intact. One eerie odd thing though was that the mechanical statues on the fountain were gone without a trace, as if they had simply walked away.

The landing zone had a few skycoaches lying on the ground and none of them looked to be functional. Both Drake and Nyl went to each of them and tried to find some way to turn them on. Nyl let Drake do most of the inspection as she didn't have his education. One had had the magic of its dragonshard drained from it. Another seemed to have had the dragonshard explode inside the engine, leaving a mess of gears and glowing dust. His mending spell could fix some of the engine, but not the magical parts needed to actually run it. In the third the entire engine was completely gone, like if it had been teleported away.

"Seems like we'll be walking," said Drake, his voice getting weary.

"Yeah. Though… to where?"

Drake shrugged as he began to think. "I think I remember the storm coming from the southeast. I guess... northwest?"

"Across Brey River?"

"Probably."

"To Thrane."

"Hmm."

Neither looked all that happy about having to go to the land of religious extremists but it didn't look like they'd have much of a choice. Without a word they continued to the northwest side of the city and out into the distorted countryside.