Йой! Нажаль, це зображення не відповідає нашим правилам. Щоб продовжити публікацію, будь ласка, видаліть його або завантажте інше.
In Azarath, Ariel sits on her bed, re-reading an old leather book Raven had once loved to read. She ponders over each yellowed page, recalling numerous things Raven had commented on the novel.
Oh, how she wishes Raven had stayed. Ariel knows about her demonic heritage, but she didn't realise it would result in her leaving. Raven didn't even say goodbye.
A small tear escapes her eye, but she quickly brushes it away, ignoring the sadness she feels for Raven. She wonders how old she is now. The last time she saw her was when Raven was thirteen years old. Ariel is now seventeen, and Raven will be turning seventeen in a matter of weeks.
Ariel doesn't know if Raven is dead or alive. She hopes she is alive but presumes Raven is deceased. Even Raven's mother, Arella Roth, hasn't heard from her at all.
Ariel understands that Raven's relationship isn't the best with her mother, even though her mother really cares for Raven, despite the prophecy, but she can't understand how Raven can't at least let Arella know where she was.
It has been three years.
Raven has, most likely, changed so much that Ariel won't even feel that same bond as she once did. Either way, she will never know.
The gaping hole she can feel in her heart never gets smaller. It only expands, making it impossible to fill. Nothing can fill that void. Everything she does is just a distraction to make her forget of that hole she can never repair.
She smooths out the photograph in her hands of Raven and her when they were toddlers. The photograph is crinkled in the edges and the picture is hazy where her tears had fallen onto it from previous times.
Ariel places the photograph back in the golden frame. She grabs the book she was reading back again and reads for a few minutes before being interrupted by an Azarathian Monk.
''Ariel! Please go to your mother!'' the monk says, just as the palace walls start to shake as if the walls are going to collapse. ''Azar fears The End is coming for us!''
Ariel wastes no time, seizing a backpack sitting underneath her desk and she snatches several items she can see: a water bottle, some food, a spare cardigan and vest and a pack of bandages she manages to grab from the first aid kit underneath her bed. In a frenzy, she takes the book she had been reading along with the photograph.
''Ariel!'' Her mother is calling her. ''Ariel! Where are you?'' She can hear the wails of her younger brother alongside her mother.
Ariel dashes down the staircase and waves to get her mother's attention. Just as she gets to the bottom of the stairs, the pillars start to crumble.
''Out of the building! Go! Go!'' The monks are shouting above the groans and creaking of the palace.
Ariel grabs her mother's hand and pulls her and her wailing five-year-old brother out from the building.
