The end of the world never came quiet.

In fact, when it came, it was with a thunder that shook your bones followed by a silence louder than all. A silence so thick that the crunch of broken glass beneath your shoe pierced the very veil of the world.

The sky fell when the world ended, and the apocalypse churned with its blood.

.

The end of the apocalypse came as quiet as a blink.

The story between is long and wrought. It’s full of the clash of sorcery and monsters with blackened skin and blacker shells. It’s stained in desert dust and tears, and the blood of billions. Two planes clash – Veil and Void – a wasteland and a molten hell eating away at what used to be Earth. Two villains stand at each head. A father who cursed his son, and a king who feared the monster in his bones.

Ella, who’d never had a surname, and Levi, who never wanted one, held hands as they stepped into the rift that had torn apart worlds. In a heartbeat, in an indrawn breath, time turned back and the fabric of the world stitched back together. There was a little skip, where the apocalypse had been, and every soul in the world carried on as if it had never been.

All apart those with sorcery running through their veins – dead, turned, alive – all took a deep breath and woke up, as if it’d all been a dream.

But a dream vanishes. Experience worms its way into every crevice of your mind and never comes out.