The Honorable Captain

The dream lilts to us this evening, soft as a feather’s touch, as the Dreamer makes his slow progress out of the Material Plane, past Air, past Water, past Earth, and into the Elemental Plane of Fire.
We soar over roiling magma wastes — coincidentally not too far from where Chamas recently singed his mane — past a far-off city of shining brass, into the mountain ranges of fire and smog, where Sakalayo Peak rises up among its sisters — the Malikah’s palace looking down upon the world. As we zoom in on the Honorable Captain Hamat, he finishes sheathing his golden blade, careful to wipe the blood off on one of his victim’s robes. We see him surrounded by the corpses of Efreeti, but backed by others in shining, modern armor, leveraging guns and grenades.
Hamat: “Move in.”
Hamat raises a fist with his command, pointing towards the palace, and his Efreeti dive in, announcing their presence with gunfire and flash bangs. Hamat takes each stair upward at a calm pace, eyes wary of snipers and mages, giving the order to advance as his soldiers complete their gruesome work, and at last arrive at an obsidian door. Hamat kicks it open with a heavy boot, and then inhales sharply.
The Malikah sits stock-still at her throne, chin raised, posture forward, eyes as black as the Void, and tears of Wither falling from her cheeks.
Hamat: “Sergeant — secure the building. Then get me a medic… And a mage. Perhaps a scholar or two. From here on out things become difficult...”
Then we pull away, zooming out from the palace, and the dream fades…