Stormrider

The Silvergrey Sea

Part Six: Storms

Stormrider

* * *

…another Oerth.

The Erthe Woman sat on stony ground in a black emotional fog; her mount curled around her body. She was among mountains, a comfort in her present state. The body of Erthe hugged its forlorn child. The sky was a misery of iron-grey cloud. Twisted stunted trees dotted the land around her. Not another sign of life here. The silence was a balm.

Millennia of work had just been violently destroyed. She contemplated just dissolving back into the Erthe. She considered attacking Azhure’en, venting her rage at the authors of her pain.

In the end, it was the Æthyr that saved her.

The former Rayne Hermit felt its stirrings as a kind of wind. It didn’t disturb the leaves of the nearby trees, nor her clothing. She felt soft ripples along her skin, though and heard a sighing that spoke of purpose and inevitability. The Erthe Woman felt its power as the horizon to the north blackened and the terrestrial wind finally picked up. The dragon raised its head and sniffed in its direction. A sound like a basso grunt escaped it.

The Æthyr.

Sent by Poseidon, no doubt. Her god had not surrendered the fight. Neither would she. A grin she didn’t bother trying to modulate split her face as the Erthe Woman stood and faced her fellow Element.

Raising her arms high, she laughed as the Void overtook her. Glee echoed along the edges of the tide as the storm swept toward Prazhski.

—Gideon Jagged
Innsmouth, October 2026

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Gideon is a freethinker, free expression absolutist, intersectionalist, and a proud child of the Enlightenment. He lives and works on the Pacific Coast.

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