Land, Broken

POV: Tarasynora

Hours passed, and the screams turned into sobs. The tidal waves of gravity slowed, and stopped, and Tarasynora still cried. She didn't know it yet, but the remaining Luminar had finally been able to slow the tides, though Hiraeth was no longer one landmass. The gravitational tides had broken it, and millions had perished as a result. But, through sheer willpower, the Luminar held the pieces of Hiraeth relatively close to one another, so that there was no more than a few hundred yards between any two sections of broken land.

Tarasynora dropped from her perch, thudding on the ground heavily. Her tears were gone now, but her heart was shattered. She walked through the battlefield, littered with mounds of bodies, and corpses strewn about, many contorted in horrendous ways. 

Her first clue that Hiraeth would no longer look as it once did, was the Living Citadel. She saw it where it should not have been, now on its own floating island. It stood tall, its branches reaching towards a new sky. Then she saw, in the far off distance, many other floating landmasses, and realized what must have happened. 

Steeling herself, Tarasynora made her way to what looked like a temporary command post. As she drew closer, people began taking notice of her arrival. Apparently, she was now the most senior officer present. Soldiers began bombarding her with reports as a steady flow of runners appeared and disappeared so quickly that she could not keep up. 

The reports told her much of the state of Hiraeth. Fortunately, much of the refugee quarters were still intact, though not all. The death estimates, in the tens of millions, drew her to the edge of tears again. Even as the reports continued to come in, and as Tarasynora issued orders, she could see that everyone was extremely edgy, as if they were waiting for the land beneath their feet to fall from the sky, which it actually could, she supposed, since all but the largest chunks of land were still floating in the sky. The largest, by far it was, rested in a vast ocean, the name of which Tarasynora knew not. 

It took days for the Hiraethians to get a handle on everything and for everyone to start believing that their continent, now in pieces, wasn't going to fall any further toward the surface of Earth. Many of the Luminar had died from overextending themselves, but still they came through and with the help of the Elenari, they were able to ensure that the floating parts of Hiraeth would be held aloft permanently.

The Elenari, able to access the power of the Ley Lines that ran through their homeland, were able to stabilize the different sections of Hiraeth by tying them together with that very same energy. It turned out that the energy in the Ley Lines poured in from another place, about which no one had any information. The Elenari, thinking that the power was intrinsic to their land, just assumed it would follow along. Fortunately, though they weren't completely correct, the power did continue to flood from that unknown dimension. The specifics of this occurrence were unknown to everyone but the highest tiers of Hiraethian rulership and academia. 

However, it did not go unnoticed by the Hiraethians as well as the people of Earth. Massive falls of pure, liquid-like energy cascaded down from seemingly random parts of Hiraeth, flooding the ocean and the atmosphere with an energy Earth had never known before the breaches: FLUX. Hiraeth brought the energy in quantities which dwarfed the amount left behind by the breaches, which would come to have unforeseen consequences on the people of Earth.

Once the dust had settled, Elenari elders gathered with Nomad leaders and refugee representatives to address their peoples. Elder Althorin's voice, filled with hope and sadness, and magically amplified so that all could hear, echoed through the air from his perch atop the Living Citadel, throughout all of Hiraeth, "We have journeyed far and faced great peril. But together, we have found a new beginning. Let us honor our past, protect our present, and build a future worthy of the sacrifices made."

Soon, people started going back to some semblance of a normal life. Some celebrated, many mourned. The Council went back to deliberating. As the sun dipped below the horizon one day not very long after Hiraeth's arrival on Earth, Tarasynora stood by a river, the water flowing peacefully despite the violence that had unfolded mere days ago. Her reflection stared back at her, a mixture of exhaustion and determination in her eyes. 

"Elara," she murmured, remembering the fallen Aetherian and the sacrifices made. "I'm so sorry… We who remain will survive. Together, we will find a way."

With a deep breath, she turned away from the water, her heart heavy with the weight of responsibility. But she knew one thing for certain: as long as she had breath in her body, she would protect her people, no matter the cost. Finally, they'd be out of the reach of their enemies. Hiraeth had found a new home, and they would make sure it endured.

Then, as if in response to her thoughts, the air began to crackle with energy, and a breach opened right before Tarasynora's eyes. She stumbled backward, shock and fear warring over which would incapacitate her first. 

"No, not here. They shouldn't be able to come here!" She was afraid, terrified, but she was a warrior. Tarasynora steeled herself, turned, and ran toward the Living Citadel. She had to warn everyone. They were not safe.

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Elsewhere on Earth, the arrival of Hiraeth wasn't well received. Millions died, and still more lost everything they had to the waters. Confusion and chaos abounded, and governments were strained to the breaking point. Somehow, though, a calm began to settle, and the eyes of all humanity began to look toward Hiraeth.