The dragon circled back.
Wide, unhurried arcs that carried them over the coastline one more time before turning inland, and Raizen looked down at the world Elin had shown him. It was still there - still vast, still strange, still assembled from pieces that didn't seem to belong to the same planet. The black sand beaches merged into red rock shelves that merged into whatever the glittering shore was made of, and behind them all the ocean sat dark and always moving, reflecting the glowing clouds in its surface like a mirror that had been placed there before anyone arrived to look into it.
Further out, the floating islands hung at the edge of visibility. He couldn't make out details anymore - just the shapes, dark against the glowing sky, suspended in the gap between water and cloud. Structures on the larger ones, maybe. Lines that might have been walls or might have been ridges of natural stone. From this distance, the difference was minimal.
But they were there. Waiting.
