CHAPTER 15 — ROSALAIN BURNS
Rosalain died slowly at first.
This beautiful ancient world, Vonvain its largest city.
It began with a pressure drop.
Citizens felt it before they saw it—a subtle wrongness in the air, like the moment before a storm breaks, when the world inhales too deeply and forgets how to exhale. Windows rattled. Lamps flickered. Ether-sensitive wards across the city spasmed and failed one by one.
Then the screaming started.
At the center of the market district, the stone folded.
Not cracked. Not shattered.
Folded—like wet parchment pressed by an unseen hand.
Abbie Kadra stood at the epicenter.
Her boots no longer touched the ground.
Ether roared through her veins like wildfire poured into blood, raw and unfiltered. The red orb Adam had warned her about—illegal ether sugar refined beyond safety—had dissolved instantly in her system, ripping open every limiter her body had ever built.
Mana Madness had a name.
It did not have mercy.
Abbie screamed.
Not in pain.
In rage.
Lucy's face burned behind her eyes. Adam's blood. The cave. The Moon. The Crown. Every injustice she had swallowed her entire life ignited at once, fusing into something feral.
Ether responded.
It always did.
The sky above Rosalain split open with a sound like tearing silk. Gravity bent inward, collapsing toward Abbie in violent pulses. Stalls, people, stone, and steel were dragged screaming into the air, orbiting her in a widening halo of debris.
Someone tried to cast a barrier.
They died before the spell completed—body unraveling as ether stripped the cohesion from their cells.
Abbie laughed.
It was not her laugh anymore.
"You wanted power," the madness whispered. "Take it."
She raised her hand.
The market district ceased to exist.
A column of red-gold light detonated outward, liquefying stone and vaporizing flesh in a perfect expanding ring. Shockwaves shattered districts three blocks away. Buildings folded inward like kneeling giants.
Rosalain's emergency wards finally triggered—too late.
Golden Moon sigils flared across the skyline as containment protocols activated, struggling to stabilize a city already bleeding reality.
Abbie hovered higher.
Her eyes glowed molten red, pupils fractured into spirals of light. Ether poured from her skin in violent arcs, distorting her silhouette until she looked less like a person and more like a wound in the world.
"LUCY!" she roared.
The name carried across the city like a curse.
Miles away, Golden Moon response units scrambled.
Brenn Ardani stood at the center of the command deck, cloak snapping violently as the transport vessel tore through compressed space.
"Confirm identity," he snapped.
The tactical display replayed the footage in merciless clarity—Abbie suspended above Vonvain, city collapsing beneath her, ether density off every chart.
Nark Osith clenched her jaw. "Signature matches Abbie Kadra. Ether saturation at… impossible levels."
Brenn's expression darkened.
"She overdosed," he said quietly. "Mana Madness at full bloom."
"Can she be subdued?" an officer asked.
Nark didn't answer.
Brenn did.
"No," he said. "Not without killing her."
Silence fell.
Lucy stood at the edge of the chamber, hands clenched so tightly her nails drew blood. The Crown screamed against her skull, reacting violently to the distant surge.
"That's my fault," she whispered.
Brenn turned sharply. "It is not."
"She did it for me," Lucy said. "She told me she would."
Brenn's voice hardened. "Lucy, listen to me. What Abbie is experiencing is not choice anymore. Mana Madness strips intention. It amplifies desire until only destruction remains."
Lucy shook her head. "You're wrong. She's still in there. I know she is."
Nark met Lucy's gaze, something conflicted flickering behind her eyes.
"Commander," Nark said slowly, "if we delay, Rosalain won't survive another ten minutes."
Brenn closed his eyes once.
"Deploy suppression lattice," he ordered. "Full city-scale inversion."
Lucy's breath hitched. "What does that do?"
Brenn didn't look at her.
"It will turn the ether against her," he said. "And tear everything else with it."
The vessel shuddered as they breached atmosphere.
Back in Rosalain, Abbie descended.
She landed in what remained of the central plaza—stone melting beneath her feet, gravity buckling outward. Survivors fled in blind panic, only to be dragged screaming back toward her by ether currents that twisted like living things.
Her body convulsed.
Too much.
Too fast.
The madness howled.
"MORE."
She screamed again—this time in pain.
Her flesh began to crack, glowing fissures spreading across her arms and torso as ether tried to escape faster than her body could contain it. Reality around her rippled violently, colors bleeding into impossible hues.
She staggered.
For a moment—just a moment—Abbie saw Lucy.
Not as she was now.
As she had been.
Laughing. Human. Safe.
"No," Abbie whispered.
The madness surged in response.
The ground split open beneath her, a chasm tearing through Rosalain as ether erupted upward like a bleeding wound. Entire districts collapsed inward, swallowed by light and screaming void.
Golden Moon suppression units finally arrived—descending like executioners from the sky.
Sigils activated.
Containment pylons slammed into the streets, forming a massive geometric lattice around Abbie. Ether inverted violently, pressure spiking as the city itself became a cage.
Abbie roared.
She tore through the first wave effortlessly—soldiers crushed midair, barriers shredded like paper. But the lattice held.
For now.
"COMMANDER," Nark shouted through the comm. "She's destabilizing faster than predicted!"
Brenn stepped forward as the transport doors opened.
"Abbie Kadra," he called, voice amplified across the ruin. "This is Brenn Ardani of the Golden Moon. Stand down."
Abbie looked up slowly.
Her eyes locked onto him.
"You," she snarled.
Ether spiked dangerously.
Brenn did not flinch.
"You are experiencing Mana Madness," he said. "Your body is failing. If you continue, you will rupture reality itself."
Abbie laughed—a broken, wet sound.
"GOOD."
Lucy pushed past Brenn.
"ABBIE!"
The Crown screamed.
Pain lanced through Lucy's skull as the Crown tightened brutally—but she forced herself forward, stumbling to the edge of the platform.
Abbie froze.
Her eyes widened.
"Lucy…?"
For a heartbeat, the ether hesitated.
Lucy collapsed to her knees, blood running from her nose. "Please," she begged. "Stop. You don't have to do this."
Abbie trembled violently.
The madness shrieked.
"DON'T LISTEN."
"I'm right here," Lucy whispered. "I'm alive. I'm okay."
The ether storm faltered.
Cracks spread faster across Abbie's body.
"She's breaking containment," Nark warned.
Brenn's hand tightened into a fist.
"Lucy, move back," he ordered. "NOW."
Lucy didn't.
Abbie screamed.
The lattice shattered.
The sky screamed with her.