69. A Closing Eye (Tadevi)¶
The Eyewall did not die quietly. It scythed across the landscape, carrying away thousands of lives in muddy torrents. Stout buildings and stone bridges collapsed and rivers overflowed their banks, walls of foaming water shattering whole villages. Far away, in many directions at once, storms raged out of season, then disappeared just as suddenly, taking crops and livelihoods with them. A system of massive cyclones appeared in the Whirling Wastes and ripped through eastern Dzhar, one of them crushing Edeweri to splinters.
But before all that, the dying storm unleashed its fury on the city like a beaten dog attacking its master. A great flood swept through the streets and tunnels, drowning rich and poor alike. The Cantereians, driven from their homes, emerged to find the government in disarray, the army away at war, and many of the senior leaders dead or missing. The anger that had smoldered below the surface for years erupted into a cleansing fire, fueled by resentment and desperation.
For the first time in generations, the sun shone on the streets of Thelenza.
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