Chapter 9 Echoes Of Fire

• The fire was gone, but its echoes remained.
• Varkas smoldered behind them—its skyline blackened, its streets broken. What wasn’t destroyed had been abandoned. Smoke hung like a veil over the eastern ridge, a reminder of promises unkept and lives spent in vain.
• Eron watched the city from a cliffside path, arms folded, shoulders heavy. Behind him, the evac columns moved in silence—wounded rebels, displaced civilians, salvaged tech in rusted transports. No cheering. No songs. Just boots over dust and the sound of the war dragging on.