The pleasant valley of Liurnia was now a blasted crater. Or rather, it was again. It had been formed by a falling star, and such was the source of its glintstone. As the Frenzied Flame parched the earth, great cracks formed, and seams of untapped glintstone shone in the haze. With grey smoke still drifting through the air, light was diffused, and it was difficult to tell the time of day. Yet when darkness fell, it was as if the stars were below our feet.
Unfortunately, these chasms were useless to us. Mosses contaminated by glintstone were inedible, no matter how some of the sorcerers tried.
Much of our survival was owed to the Academy. Its barrier had held strong, even against the Frenzied Flame. Even the greatest violence of the Shattering could not breach it. It merely had to let the Flame burn itself out. Of course, there were no survivors. Air could still pass through the barrier, and the Flame burned it all.
Some parts of the Academy were ruined by the heat, but the stores of food it had gathered against the Shattering were mostly intact. We took shelter there, gathering precious water in what containers we could.
We didn't fear attack from the ruins of the world beyond. The rolling hills around the lakes had been burnt to jagged cliff walls. The only thing we feared as much our underground water drying up was that the cracking of the earth had awakened things which long lay dormant. We would likely face crystalians before long, and we hoped there would be no worse.