Evelyn Arwood, former siren of Destiny, nimbly stepped around a pile of corpses.
Each movement was preordained as she let the gentle stars guide her. The gnarled staff she carried found temporary purchase between a fallen crossbeam of some nearby house and a chunk of sandstone blown free from the collapsed arena.
She whistled lightly to herself, harmonizing effortlessly with the tune the stars were singing. It was a somber, urgent cadence, reflected by the rhythm of her staff and boots.
Evie paused as the stars instructed, waiting patiently for them to return to their invisible march. A massive boulder crashed into the path before her, gouging a wide trench into the ground as it spiraled away.
She glanced upward to see Destruction recover from the blow, snarl, and then throw an entire tree at her sibling with the force of a hurricane. The goddess who had posed as Life was barely hanging on, varicose veins of a toxic red growing like ivy down her fingers, arms, and neck.
Her current form would not last for much longer, Evie knew. However, what would happen when this pylon of reality fell was still unclear to her.
The stars resumed, and so did she.
The siren stepped forward and navigated the labyrinth of debris with a calm that contrasted her surroundings. Flames and gales and plants billowed around her, but she followed her guide with complete faith. The stars had never steered her wrong, and it wouldn’t change now.
The melody the stars sang soured into something melancholic and desperate, and she instinctively picked up her pace. After a few minutes, she stopped before a weeping girl. Long trails of warm tears ran down her dark skin as the wood elf’s sides were wracked with painful sobs.
“How… How could she…?” The elf demanded of the skies and storms.
“Cade needs your help,” Evie said, and her words—as the stars foretold—interrupted this woman’s entirely warranted spiral. “Please, follow me.”
Evelyn stretched out a soot-coated hand to the girl, who stared at her like it was both the head of an adder and also her final lifeline.
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She took it.
The two women marched through what little remained of the grand arena of Life, Evie navigating them toward a long stretch of upturned stone and dirt. The trench that had once been a main thoroughfare was in ruins, some large plow having etched its mark through this escape route.
Evie turned to the petite elf. “Cade is just ahead and is going to need your magic. Please, go help him. He doesn’t have long.”
“Who… Who are you? Are you on his team?” the elf asked in a hoarse voice. She gripped her elbow nervously as she glanced at the uneven ground ahead of them.
The siren nodded with a smile, adjusting her grip on the amazing staff she leaned on. Evie’s long curls tickled her face as the winds shifted yet again. They both looked to see Destruction conjure a spiraling jet of air and flames only to send the cyclone through several city blocks.
Where it went, death and mayhem followed.
Evie gently pushed the elf down the road where Cade was dying.
“It’s really time you get going,” Evelyn insisted. “The stars say he’s not going to make it if you don’t rush.”
That got her moving. The elf barely waved a hand in Evie’s direction before she was off.
Strange, Evie thought absently. Most people question the whole stars thing. I like her.
The stars of Fate shifted again, their ever-present song flitting across the edges of her perception like the memory of a kiss. She followed them and soon reached a bulky orc in the middle of putting out a massive blaze.
Or, rather, she was extricating the temperature from the flames, nullifying their hunger and allowing for a tight group of civilians to pass through a narrow crevasse in the street.
“Go, go, go!” the orc roared.
The Elysians followed her order without complaint, uncaring of the spite Evelyn knew lived her heart. Apparently, the calloused warrior had a soft spot, albeit a small one. Evie walked up and tapped the muscular commander.
“Excuse me,” Evie said patiently.
She silently prayed that Nora and Cade would forgive her for what she needed to do next.
The orc turned, golden energy flickering across her green skin in thick rivulets. A hunger consumed her outraged expression, and Evie felt that it had nothing to do with the city that crumbled around them.
No, it was an older hate that fueled this acolyte of Scorn.
“Where?” was all the orc demanded, clearly having heard Evie’s proclamation.
She pointed her staff in the direction, and the Raven shot down the road.
Her work was done, and she strode down a thin alley to where a couple of wobblewumps were huddled. She gently guided them into the sewers and started to head toward the direction the stars were singing. She couldn’t wait to see Gavin and tell him all about this.
Hopefully, he’d remember her name this time.
What's Evie's REAL superpower during the apocalypse?
