One moment she was cold and desperate, facing grim choices about her future, and the next she stood in a warm room being embraced by her mother. She couldn’t help but weep tears of gratitude and joy. Esoica brought her to a narrow window, and it was then Melissa discovered they were on a small levitating platform which overlooked the crater she almost died in. On the ridge Toby’s encampment could be seen, and it cheered Melissa even more, knowing not only was she with her mother, but could keep an eye on Toby. “That is the crater of the First Apocalypse,” said Esoica. “Three thousand years ago, something hit our world. It hit it so hard, that it knocked our world out of its orbit around the sun and changed the sphere into an ovoid.” “And that’s why it’s so cold?” “Yes. So many people died,” she said softly, as if she was witness to the event. “But there would be no Archsussa if not for that catastrophe. It is near that impact crater that the Centric Sphere was discovered, almost two thousand years ago.”
