"This is goodbye, then," the voice said.
Sonder retrieved her staff from where she had left it. It felt lighter in her grip now.
"I guess it is," she said, and the moment the words left her lips, the ground beneath her feet shuddered.
The moment the words left her lips, the ground beneath her feet trembled. She barely had any time to realize what was going on around her as the throne room warped around her.
Stone bent inward, air folded, and light fractured until it all collapsed into a flood of deep red.
The world shifted, and Sonder felt herself pulled, not flung or carried, through the land itself, as though she had become a thought passing through it all. For a moment, she had no weight, no presence.
Then she stumbled forward but caught herself, boots scraping against loose gravel.
Sonder straightened slowly and found herself outside. Away from any place that seemed to have been built by hand.
Far in the distance, she could see the mountain rise, its peak glowing faintly red beneath the dark and unmoving clouds.
But she felt more at ease knowing the lord of the lands.
High above in the sky, shadows moved. She looked up.
A dozen dark knights circled the sky on feathered dragons, their gray silhouettes moving against the black clouds. Some flew in wide arcs; others hovered in place, wings beating slowly. None of them advanced. None drew their weapons.
They were not there to threaten her. They were just watching, guarding the border, and seeing her off.
This was goodbye.
Sonder lifted one hand in a small wave in acknowledgment.
The knights did not answer. As one, they turned and flew back toward the heart of the dark lands. One by one, their forms vanished into shadow and cloud until the sky was empty again.
When something pressed against her, Sonder realized that she wasn't alone.
The featherling drifted close, its form more solid now, less like scattered dust and more like a living thing, now that it was farther away from the middle of the dark lands.
She smiled. "Well. I guess it's just us now."
The featherling answered with a soft, content coo.
Carefully, Sonder reached inward.
The words settled into her, one by one, fitting into place with absolute certainty.
"Sag Eem Xoh Urm."
A pull formed deep within her; a sense of alignment, of direction. It felt like stepping onto a path she had been searching for all along, even if she had never known where it began.
She could almost see it.
A faint thread of blue stretched out before her, thin but undeniable, tugging gently at her awareness. There were others, fainter, scattered in many directions, but one shone brighter than the rest.
That would be where she would begin.
The thread led away from the dark lands, and wherever it was going, Sonder was resolved to follow it.