Location: Gateway Site — Eastern Valley, Hidden Village
Date/Time: 30 Ashwhisper → Void Day 2, 9938
AZI Realm: Mid Realm
They came in rivers.
Not single files or small groups — rivers of people pouring through the primordial forests along the hidden trails that connected eight hundred thousand lives to each other like arteries in a body that had never known it was alive. Families carrying everything they owned on their backs. Elders leaning on walking sticks carved from wood that had been in their families for generations. Children riding on shoulders or in wagons or running ahead with the terrible energy of the young who don't understand that this is the last time their feet will touch this ground.
Lyria stood at the eastern ridge above the gateway site and watched them come.
