The portal opened above a deserted avenue.
Blue light spilled across pale stone, illuminating the carved arches and silver-leafed trees lining the street. For a moment, the air trembled around the opening.
Then Athena stepped through.
Arthur followed, carrying Aiden and Damian.
The portal closed behind them with a soft, fading hum.
They had arrived in the capital of Elvania.
But the city Arthur remembered was gone.
The buildings remained. So did the elegant bridges spanning the narrow waterways and the flowering vines climbing the balconies.
But much of the city he remembered had been destroyed.
The streets were empty.
No merchants called from beneath the market awnings. No children chased one another around the fountains. No conversations drifted from the open terraces.
Shutters had been drawn over shop windows. A fruit stall stood abandoned beneath a sagging canopy, its unsold produce beginning to spoil.
Only guards moved through the capital.
