Varo King World had been consumed.
Every corner of it was blacked with smot and tarr — the thick, dark residue that corruption left behind as it spread, coating surfaces, filling cracks, turning what had been living space into something that looked like the inside of something dead. In the far dark corners of the landscape, creatures moved through the shadows feasting on what remained of settlements. The sound of bones being crushed carried further than it should have in the silence.
The invisible shuttle cut through the air without a sound.
It climbed steadily, navigating up along the side of a mountain region, moving through the shadows where the light from the sun barely reached. From the outside there was nothing to see — just air, just rock face, just the occasional shift of shadow that could easily be explained away.
"This is the place he was last seen."
