All those bags of flame­craft in the Tem­ple alcove had just exploded, caus­ing an entire wall to col­lapse into fiery chaos.

Gil’s teeth are still rat­tling in his skull. Dimly, he sees Kripa take Ayan by the arm and pull her towards the new open­ing.

Kiddu does the same with Gil. He coughs in the smoke and debris as they race across the rapidly dis­in­te­grat­ing Tem­ple.

Light­ning slices through the black smoke, smash­ing into a nearby pil­lar and blan­ket­ing them in a layer of burn­ing dust. Burn­ing chunks of ceil­ing rain down and shat­ter on the floor. Gil hears the debris fall with dull, muddy thuds through his buzzing ears—

They leap through the open­ing and stum­ble onto soft, sandy ground.

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