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Elara adjusted the strap of her leather pack,

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her boots pressing into the mossy edge of

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the precipice. Before her, the horizon was not

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a solid line, but a fracture of reality.

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Great chunks of earth, draped in weeping vines

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and ancient stone, drifted through the amber

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light of the setting sun like ships sailing

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a sea of vapor. She waited for the

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rhythmic

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chime of the wind harps, the signal that

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the currents were stable. When the melody finally

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hummed through the air, she took a breath

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and leaped. For a heartbeat, there was only

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the vertigo of the abyss, a vast expanse

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of clouds churning far below like a restless

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white ocean. Then the updraft caught her cloak,

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and she glided toward the nearest floating

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island. The island groaned under its own weight

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as she landed, its rocky underside crusted

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with minerals that sparkled like buried stars. Above

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her, a massive waterfall tumbled over

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the lip of a neighboring crag, its crystalline

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arc shattering into mist long before it reached

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the clouds below. The water didn't fall to

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a riverbed, but vanished into the infinite

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white veil, turning to fog before it could

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ever touch the ground. As she traversed the

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narrow, precarious stone bridges that connected the fragments

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of this broken world, the silence

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was broken only by the distant, haunting cries

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of birds with wingspans as wide as rowboats.

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They circled the higher islands, their shadows darting

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across the mist. She reached the center

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of the chain, where a solitary ancient temple

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sat, half -swallowed by the encroaching vines.

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As she stepped inside, the light shifted, casting

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dramatic, long shadows against the

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walls. The waterfalls roared in the distance, a

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constant, soothing thrum that made the air

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heavy with moisture and magic. She had come

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to return the heartstone to the altar, a

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ritual

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performed every hundred years to keep the islands

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tethered to the sky. With a final,

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steadying hand, she placed the glowing artifact into

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the pedestal's cradle. The ground shuttered,

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the islands shifted, and the waterfalls seemed to

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brighten, catching the final rays of the

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sun. The floating world settled into its orbit

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once more, drifting peacefully through the

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clouds, anchored for another century against the pull

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of the earth below.