The sky too was grey and lifeless, with nothing stirring the air, until even the border between land and sky was impossible to discern - if any such border existed. It wasn’t like an overcast day, when the clouds obscure the blue beyond - but as if all colour had been leeched from the sky itself. There was no sun, no moon. And a ringing silence filled the void, louder than thought.
Where was this place? What had happened?
He remembered falling, falling so far that he knew he would die before he ever hit the bottom, so far he wondered if there was any ground to catch him at all or if he might just fall until the world ended.
There had been an explosion, something had ended - glass shards everywhere - and then the black space falling away. He looked at his hands - dusty and shaking - and noticed slivers of crystal embedded deep within but there was no blood, and there was no pain.
Now only grey sand and dirt, perhaps the powdered bones of long-perished creatures. And here he was.
Asher, he thought to himself, my name is Asher - perhaps I am dead.
