These tremors weren't like those of a Californian earthquake.  Tectonic plates weren't sliding.  Here, the ground was being split apart from under.  Another street lamp fell over in the middle of the street, a mere block behind Alexander, where the asphalt  was beginning to crack.  With each rumble, the cracks in the ground shunted out further, like how an ice-covered lake breaks.  Seconds later, a massive, inhuman groan pierced the air and a geyser of water exploded from the ground.  The jet from the precious water main towered above the low buildings lining the street, and as it fell back to earth, it erupted into a fountain of steam.  

The people crowding the street were congregating, confused, everyone asking each other what was going on, some waving iPhones everywhere, some panicked.  Las Vegas didn't get earthquakes like this.  And the steam billowing forth shouldn't have been there.  And there shouldn't be anything moving inside the cloud of steam.

At first, she couldn't see anything.  Water from the burst pipes didn't even reach her skin - it evaporated before it could make contact with her and blocked her sight.  She could hear though.  She could hear the panic of the surface inhabitants around her and loud, irritating, mechanical beeping.  She could also smell.  When she took her first inhale of the surface air, she knew she was in the right place.  The light had a scent and a taste.  It was sharp and clear and clean on her tongue.  Gamigin's difficulty locating the bearer had concerned her, but he hadn't failed her yet.  She stepped forward through the mist to follow the scent and observe the surface she had stepped onto.

If the crowd on the street had been confused and panicked before, they were also awed now as well.  The empress stepped into their view, to the shock and awe of the eyes on her.  For a brief moment, the empress was… startled.  The surface world had changed more than ever.  There was the cloudless blue sky overhead,  the tops of buildings the likes of which she had never seen, and the unexpectedly hot air hitting her face.  The surface world had changed more on one thousand years than she would have imagined.  But she pushed the curiosity away.  She had a mission.  

She stared into the crowd around her, the crowd clamoring that some white-skinned humanoid with metallic bundles on their back had stepped out of the geyser.  The light wasn't around her.  None of these creatures had it.  So she had no use for them.  

But it was still close.  She ignored the other creatures, striding down the center of the road, following the clear taste in her mouth and nose.  If they chose to get in her way… well, that was their problem, not hers.