“Her name is Forcina, a powerful air Sorceress,” Doraan answered.
All four of the Sorcerers gasped in unison.
The water Sorcerer shot to his feet, “Has she followed you here? Does she know where you are?”
Doraan frowned at their response. “No. We have not seen her in many days, but we never truly know what she knows or when she is following us.”
“You must leave now,” the man said.
It was the Earth Sorcerer who stood next, angling himself toward the Water Sorcerer. “Rogaan, you speak too soon. If Forcina had followed them or knew where they were, she would be here already.”
“You know her, then?” Doraan asked, curious. He wanted to know why they feared her. Technically, he knew why, but he had assumed they were just as powerful as she was. Was she someone so powerful that even the strongest Sorcerers in the Empire feared her? Forcina’s words came back to him.I am something that you cannot even comprehend.
“We do,” he said, voice calm and even. “We will offer you a place to stay for the evening and a meal, but you must leave at daybreak.”
Doraan furrowed his brow, but nodded. “Thank you for your hospitality.”
The Earth Sorcerer smiled, “Come, I would like to speak with you privately. Lariin.”—he motioned toward the Fire Sorceress—“will take the rest of your crew to have a hot meal.”
Cormac rose beside him, but Doraan put a hand on his shoulder. “I’ll be fine.”
The quartermaster only frowned, but stayed and did not follow as Doraan walked toward the stone archway the man had disappeared through.
Doraan found himself in a winding hallway that sloped upward, following the brown flowing robes that spread out like a span of wings behind the Sorcerer. Doraan picked up his pace, coming to the door the man walked through only to find himself in a room filled with shelves of books and strange artifacts.
The man sat in an oversized chair, one of two angled toward a large hearth, where a single blue flame sputtered, producing more heat than he would have imagined for such a small fire.
He motioned to the chair opposite him. “Please, sit.”
Doraan obliged, a sudden flutter of anxious unease moving through him in anticipation of what this man wanted to speak to him about. Did he know he was the son of the man who murdered his kind in droves?
“My name is Melik and I am the Earth Warden here at the Temple,” he said in a soft but commanding tone. “Tell me, how did you come to find us?”
“The woman sailing with us got the information from the Brothers of the Spring.”
Melik snorted, narrowing his eyes on him. “Will you tell me more of this curse? How exactly did it happen?”
“It was on my fourteenth birthday. Forcina appeared from nowhere. She was angry with my father over what…” Doraan stopped short, eyeing the Sorcerer in an attempt to gauge what his reaction to his next words might be. “Well, what he did to the Sorcerers. My father is Emperor Amir.”
The man didn’t react to his words—not even a flinch—so Doraan continued, “She said something about ‘you took my son from me, so I’ll take yours from you.’ I don’t remember the exact words she said next. It was all a blur, but the next thing I knew, I was in the middle of the ocean on a ship with a group of men I didn’t know, and each time we tried to sail to shore, we couldn’t.”
Melik frowned. “I’m afraid what Forcina did to you and your men is far beyond our abilities. She…” He paused, leaning forward in his chair, and rested his elbows on his knees as he clasped his hands in front of him. “She is something we don’t fully understand. We have managed to stay hidden from her, but her gifts are not the same as ours. If what you say is true and you truly cannot go on land, then she has found a way to enact the impossible by bending your very soul to her whim.”
It was Doraan’s turn to frown. “So, you cannot help us?”
“I’m afraid not. She has accomplished something far greater than even a Legion can do. The only way to get out of your curse is through Forcina herself.”
The witch has made it impossible for this curse to end. She had made sure that he would be left to roam the sea forever, or die. Her words from that fateful evening all those years ago grated at his mind, embedding into the forefront of his mind.“The only way to enact your freedom is to perform a selfless act on my kin. Sacrifice yourself to reverse the crimes of your father, and you will be unbound from this curse.”Doraan’s anger ignited and sweat began to bead on his brow.
“Are you alright?”
“Fine,” Doraan said, between clenched teeth. They had come here for nothing. The last two weeks had been utterly useless. Doraan looked out the far window, watching as Sorcerers wielded their powers. “Are you planning to attack my father and Aksahri?”
“What?” The man scoffed. “Why would you ask such a thing?”
“Your Sorcerers are out there practicing combat skills. Plus, you’ve been forced to this place, forced to hide because of my father. I assumed you had been planning an attack all these years.”
“We are completely self-sufficient here. We never want for anything, and we are free to use our gifts. We arefree. We have no need to attack Aksahri.”
