The Silence Beyond the Dunes. When she opened her eyes, the sky was not blue.

It was a deep, swirling violet, streaked with crimson winds that whispered through an atmosphere too thin to hear. The sand beneath her body pulsed faintly with a rhythm like a slow heartbeat. She sat up slowly, her skin covered in a fine dust that shimmered in unnatural hues. There was no memory of how she had arrived. No ship. No wreckage…