A World Apart (The Elencheran Chronicles) - Excerpt

A World Apart: Excerpt from Chapter 22

Change was in the air and it was encapsulated by the sudden illumination in the skies above of a purple glow that began in the east and spread west, lighting up the surface of the ocean and causing Eleyna to briefly shield her eyes. Once they had adjusted to the brightness, Eleyna made her way to the forecastle deck and watched the stars barely visible beneath the rich purple carpet above.

It was the end of another year. 29630 had drawn to a close and as the crew of the Aeonian entered 29631 they still had a long way to go on their journey to Gremilda. Eleyna saw the purple cosmos as a blessing on her future as leader of the Aeonian. She couldn’t imagine being in the Captain’s cabin, sitting on the other side of that desk but the change of another year made that reality seem ever closer. Would the rest of the crew be so accommodating though? Eleyna wondered if she’d have to challenge each of them to prove her worth. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that.

***

Three months after Eleyna’s meeting with Anna about the future, the crew of the Aeonian were on deck and looking directly ahead. In the distance they could see the highest mountains of Gremilda looming large on the horizon but their eyes were drawn away from the peaks to a glow towards the west. A myriad of colours were glowing brightly on the surface of the ocean, a thick band to the west of Gremilda and stretching north and south as far as the eye could see.

‘We’re finally here,’ Anna said, glancing through a telescope. ‘How I’ve longed to see you, Gremilda.’

The crew watched in silence for a few minutes, taking everything in.

‘What’s that glowing to the west, Captain?’ Eleyna asked.

Anna laughed. ‘That, my girl, is the edge of the world. Something I never thought I’d see in this lifetime.’

The Aeonian’s greatest adventure had begun.