A River to No Where

I’ve never been fond of water travel. Even though I grew up near the sea, ships and boats were never my passion. Traveling on them has always made my skin crawl and my stomach churn.

This trip would see a continuation of that trend. As much as I would have loved to have been top deck, it wasn’t an option, so instead, I contented myself with the small circle window which provided just enough breeze to keep me from the sickness that I knew was close.

We were only a day out from the Vosk when the storm hit us, a ferocious funnel of dark water so large that its height ascended beyond my line of vision and disappeared into the heavens above. I was awestruck as it danced and shimmered towards us, ripping the current that lay in its wake in the most amazing and dazzling display of power and control that I have ever seen. Thunder boomed and lightening pulsed, electrifying the night sky in furied flashes, where glimpses of the destruction were revealed. Screams rent the air, little time to react, Boards crackling and splintering, the spout sawing the ship in two. A weeping rush of cold collected me and sucked me down into the depths of black oblivion, the air pushed out of my lungs with the impact. As cold as I was, my lungs were burning, afire with that which had been replaced.. water for air.

As I plunged further into a chasm of murky deliverance, the sea rolling and roiling around me.. a card floated upwards, and even as I reached out to claim it, I already knew what it was.

The City of Dust.