Cassiel struggled to right herself as another impact caused the world to shudder and tilt around her, clutching the precious coil of golden wire to her side.
For three days Araqlun had languished.
On the first day, all had seemed fine in the city.
The Council of Choirs had been assassinated, but the Son of Heaven had promised stability and a quick solution. He ruled now, unopposed, because there was no time for proper procedures when all of Heaven was at stake.
Power was restored to the city. The ancient shields were holding against the vacuum. The rest of Heaven might have been floating away but the city was whole.
He would find a way to bring everything back.
Then the power outages started.
On the second day, people panicked.
The portal network was down. Had been down, and no one had been told, much less allowed to try to use it, since the crisis started.
