It was Kael. He wasn't grumbling. He was smiling, his weathered face wet with tears. In his hand, he held a single violet petal.
Hundreds of people, scattered across the cliff, blinking and crying just like her. Children, elders, miners, mechanics. All of them had touched a flower. All of them had been forgotten by Veridian. All of them had the same look in their eyes: not fear, but recognition . aviana violet
Suddenly, she was standing on a cliff of black volcanic rock, gasping. Above her was not a dome, but an endless, terrifying, beautiful expanse of deepening blue. And at the edge of that blue, a crack of molten gold. It was Kael
Aviana looked back at the sunrise. The gold was spreading, chasing away the last of the night. In his hand, he held a single violet petal
"The city thinks those orchids are a failed crop," he said softly. "But they're not crops. They're anchors. A long time ago, before the ocean swallowed the land, someone planted them so we'd never truly forget the sun. They only bloom for those who still dream of the surface."
And for the first time in her life, Aviana smiled without the weight of a mile of water on her chest.
"What happens now?" she whispered.