Sahomi

The air in The Crystal Highlands of Armaria always smells of ozone and wet stone, a scent Sahomi once found exhilarating. They were the most promising trainee in their unit, the one with the easy charm and the silly little plant they insisted brought good fortune. They’d regale their squad with tales of quiet mornings spent fishing, promising to take them all one day. Their first off-site mission was to chart a newly surfaced monolith. It pulsed with an energy no one had recorded. When Sahomi knelt to take a soil sample, the crystal screamed. A wave of silent, rainbow-hued energy erupted, turning their entire squad to glittering dust before their eyes. These days, the smell of ozone makes them sick. They carry their old fishing rod everywhere, a relic of a promise they can never keep.