I look up.
Whatever's falling out of the top of the tower is drifting down through the air like packing foam on a lazy breeze. Dozens of them.
No… more. It's like a slow, rotating snowstorm.
I squint.
Something is wrong.
I ate some scales just in case. 45 Scales—I eat them in chunks.
[Scales: 590 -> 545]
[OXI: 1,600 / 1,600]
As they fall, I feel the true size of the objects. I just couldn't parse the scale against the empty sky. By the time the closest one is halfway down, the depth perception clicks into place, and I feel my stomach drop.
They're not snow.
They're huge.
Each one is big enough to cover half my body if it lands on me. Two wings of what look like flower petals spin slowly above each one, rotating like the samara of a maple seed, and under the petals, suspended, hangs a bulb—pulsing, membranous, wrapped in something like wet silk.
Something alive inside?
Beside me, the runes are still lit steady blue.
