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Emily's Taken body sprinted through the forest of the land surrounding hope, trying to get back to the Cosmodrome where she would return to the Dreadnought with Dregen Yor. However, the creature was not alone, her spectral duplicate was following her. Emily had started to get a better understanding of the situation that she was in after what Toland told her parents. She was stuck in between life and afterlife. She was a ghost as she thought she was. She floated over the head of her Taken self as she ran.

"Even though I'm not physical, I think that I can manipulate her somehow." She thought to herself as she continued to follow. "What matters is how I can do that, and if I would be able to before it's too late." She followed her Taken self as it sprinted through the forests and plains of Europe, hours turned to days before she had approached a strange site. Emily's body kept running away. However, her soul stopped to take a look. She floated toward the massive structure that was jutting out of the woods into the midday sky; it was so large it was as if the moon crashed into the Earth. 

It was large, towering over the surrounding area. It was jagged and broken; it was smoking, all around it, a blue fire was raging across its surface. The entire area was surrounded by a strange forest below, the trees were dead, or dying, however at the same time it felt alive. Emily moved to the ground beneath the large object. As she walked through the darkened world, she started to have an epiphany about the nature of the object itself. 

It was a piece of the Traveler. 

The young girl kept walking through this strange place, thinking about what was wrong with this place. The Traveler was supposed to be the good and bright, but the forest that she was walking through was dark and evil, corrupted by the same energy that gave her the ability to see. Something was eerie about this place it was quiet, not a creature to be heard, just the air in the wind. 

The trees were all absurdly large, so big in fact that it would have taken at least a thousand years for them to get this big naturally. It was the middle of summer; there should have been leaves on these trees if they were still alive. Emily kept wandering through the dark place, as she drifted through the forest she started feeling something warm...embracing. "What is that?" She asked herself. However, she noticed something about the feeling she was getting, as she moved deeper into the forest the sensation got hotter. 

She moved through several destroyed buildings until she felt as if her entire soul was melting on the inside. She looked out over a balcony on the ruined building she was inside of and saw what was attracting her. Deep into the Earth's crust was a shard of the Traveler, just a small piece that was jutting out of the darkened forest. She floated across the balcony toward the part, her soul continued to burn and get even hotter as she moved forward. She touched the ground in front of the small shard and walked ahead. She stretched out her hand to touch the shard. An aura appeared around her body; she could feel some form of corporealness return to her. 

Her body then appeared to be a purple color with her features being more defined by bright pink lines. She looked up at the shard in amazement. Curious, She looked at the shard more carefully and glared at her reflection at it. She'd tried to see herself in the mirror a few days ago; she was invisible. But now, she could see herself again. She could feel things in her hands and manipulate objects. 

"YES!" She cheered out into the sky. 

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Nova woke up several days after Emily disappeared again, she was feeling groggy and all around unpleasant. She rubbed her forehead for a moment before looking to her right at her alarm clock. It was half past noon; she'd slept for nearly half a day. She looked to her left to see that Katie wasn't there. She sighed heavily to herself and stepped out of bed. The Guardian walked outside of her room slowly, her bare feet set down on the carpeted floor, feeling the brush in between her toes. 

Wrath of A King: Shattered Past Book 5Where stories live. Discover now