Nightmares of The Ruining, the inhabitants of Neverwinter burning

After waking from her stasis, Vala began to dream nearly nightly of The Ruining. She both sees and feels the inhabitants of Neverwinter burning. They are ongoing.

These are exactly her Mama's fits, which she has not realized were untamed visions yet

The more she has them, the more she’s able to master herself and separate herself from the burning agony to See (as she had training her mother did not)

Now she Sees the following alongside the burning:

Children crying, outstretched hands toward their burning parents.
She has identified one - Erynn Haldwynn
She is haunted by failing them and what her failures have cost them.

Only Skin

Unknown

When you wept, I was gone;

see, I got gone when I got wise.

But I can’t with certainty say we survived.

Then down and down

and down and down

and down and deeper,

stoke, without sound,

the blameless flames,

you endless sleeper.

Through fire below,

and fire above,

and fire within,

sleep through the things that couldn’t have been,

if you hadn’t have been.

Fire moves away. Fire moves away, son.

Why would you say that I was the last one?

Last one?

March 2nd, 2026 March 2nd, 2026

Kingfisher

Thrown to the ground,

by something down there;

bitten by the bad air,

while the clouds tick;

trying to read all the signs,

preparing for when the bombs hit;

hung from the underbelly of the earth,

while the stars skid away, below,

gormless and brakeless, gravel-loose,

falling silent as gavels in the snow

--

Stand here and name

the one you loved,

beneath the drifting ashes,

and, in naming, rise above time,

as it, flashing, passes.

January 9th, 2026 March 2nd, 2026