Ning arrived in a small town south of Bronveria almost immediately after learning what Tritus was doing, appearing high above a collection of low stone buildings, narrow roads, and farmland.
The place would have looked peaceful under ordinary circumstances if the entire area had not been trembling beneath a succession of increasingly violent earthquakes.
People poured out of their homes and gathered in the streets, frightened families clinging to one another while they waited for the earthquake to pass. They weren't aware that this was no ordinary quake and that it wouldn't pass so quickly either.
Immediately, Ning turned toward the source of the disturbance far away and took to the sky.
He saw the boy first.
Jun'Tal lay on the ground several kilometers outside the town, unmoving but still alive, while a man stood beside him with one hand stretched toward something far larger than either of them.
