Epilogue

          The open rifts where the Chronos spilled from from were mesmerizing. The longer Carter looked at them, the more his mind wandered. Only when a fresh, mind-numbingly violent earthquake triggered did he find himself snapped out of the daze. It was weird: not the earthquake that could only be described as Eeventide’s disparaging disapproval of the invaders, but that he found himself physically drifting toward the Chrono’s point-of-entry.  Whether the cause was the dimensional rifts themselves or the Chronos, he wasn’t sure, but he knew he had to get away from this place. That would be difficult considering none of the portals in the vicinity were functioning properly. Could the smoky creatures be tamed? Would they? Either way, Carter instinctively knew they should not be.

          Carter, the Champion of Cardsmithing plotted a course in a direction opposite the way Treeforge was headed. But just as he went to take off, someone’s Helver caught him by the arm. He spun to find Captain Derrick Dorman looking betrayed. “Where do you think you’re going?” asked the Captain. 
          “Away from here, to better equip myself,” said Carter, pulling out of the Captains grasp. 
          “You’re running away? You’re one of our best Cardsmiths! We need you to forge new creatures to fight—”
          “I’m not running away,” snapped Carter. “And there’s nothing I can forge that will touch those things. You saw that our Treefolk did nothing.”
          “The other Guilds didn’t help us before, and they won’t help now!” 
          “They might when they realize this affects all of Eeventide.”
          Captain Dorman risked a glance back at the black storm, his attention jumping between their Guild growing smaller in the distance and the Chrono conglomeration in the skies above. The mass of smoky creatures had grown smaller even as more appeared, but only because they dispersed. The aggravated ones pursued Drifters while the rest scattered along Eeventide’s surface, searching for canyons, crevices or caves as dark as they were. “So, you’re just going to leave Treeforge?” asked Derrick. 
          “I am leaving Treeforge,” confirmed Carter.
          “Don’t leave,” begged Derrick desperately. But his eyes almost looked as if he wanted to go with him.
          “Oliver’s a fighter,” said Carter reassuringly. “He’ll be up again in no time. But I already told you guys when I joined that I wouldn’t stay long.”
          “Treeforge can teach you more,” said Derrick, still hoping to change his mind. 
          “I’ve learned all I can from Treeforge and I’ve given a lot back in the process. Besides Shardveil, the only Guild I haven’t yet been a part of is Dragonis. Haven’t you noticed that they’ve been suspiciously absent from every major world event for a while now? You see a few Dragonis Drifters mining randomly and then planet starts acting up more than usual… you don’t find that odd?”
          Derrick replied, “The cause could be any number of things—too much ice, Carcery, and now these things!”
          But Carter was intent on solving the puzzle. “I know that the rocks the red Drifters carry around are marked with glyphs—like the ones on Oliver’s ribbons—to act as a key of some kind. I think they know more than we do. Oliver himself knows something is up with them, but nobody is addressing it.”
          “Carter, you’re not a Dragonis Drifter,” said Derrick in a final attempt to dissuade his friend. 
          Carter fanned his deck out, showing all different kinds of creatures and symmetry cards to prove Derrick wrong. His feet left the frozen ground as a last gesture that he was leaving, and he said as the planet rumbled beneath them once again, “If Eeventide is as alive as we believe it is, then surely it won’t let these forces completely destroy it or the lives tethered to it. Maybe all it needs is a little nudge, a little extra prodding!”