[Danny]

The watchers on the hill are thrown back, blinded by the bright flash from the plains. They lie there, stunned. Rettick is the first to rise, followed by Pacen. They look out over the plain, but can see nothing but emptyness. The figures, both real and ghostly, have vanished, and the vegetation has been scorched from the land. They look at each other.

Rettick clears his throat. "Shall we-"

"We'd better."

They begin to walk down the edge of the bowl. There is no sign of Jal, the Stranger, or the legions that surrounded them. When Rettick and Pacen despair of finding Jal alive, they begin looking for corpses, or parts of corpses. The others join them from the hill.

After twenty minutes, Osiris calls the others over. When they get to him, they can see two fist-sized crystals lying at Osiris's feet. One is a jet-black, and the other is a pure white. As they watch, they crystals fade to a dirty grey colour, the same colour as the soil around them. Eventually, they are indistinguishable from the soil.

They look for longer, but find no traces of Jal. They reluctantly set off on the trek back to Pyke.