The End Unseen

TWO

Though the fires of her home had vanished behind them two nights ago, the smell of smoke and suffering still clung to Jesenia’s shawl. The silver-threaded hem was dulled with soot and dirt.

Before her, the road to the Golden City of Solmiris stretched endlessly beneath a gloom-filled sky. She looked upward, praying to the skies in hopes that it did not rain on her people and wash away the remainder of their fragile hope.

There were so few of them left. She hadn’t counted, but Jesenia thought it couldn’t be more than one hundred of them that had made it out. Most of them were women and small children, and they walked in silence. A line of sorrowful figures carrying nothing but the clothes on their backs.