Thousands of lights floated around them like little balls of fire, casting everything around them in a warm glow. The lights shifted as they walked through, floating around them like lantern flies. Long tables encircled a massive bonfire with blue flames. Tables and chairs rooted into the earth sprouted up to create their own unique shapes, decorated with snaking vines and floating lights that hovered above each table like fireflies. Hundreds of people milled about, some sitting at the tables already, while others talked among themselves, all dressed in elaborate robes with shimmering gold and silver thread. Each element could be picked out just based on what they were wearing, but their apparel was more elegant and beautiful than their day clothes. The mouthwatering smells of smoked meat and spices filled the air.
Everything was breathtaking, but the most magnificent view of the entire festival scene was the enormous tree behind it all. Doraan continued his way through the throng of people to its base. He didn’t know how he hadn’t spotted it earlier when they arrived because it stood taller than any of its surrounding structures. Shimmering green leaves shifted to blue and purple from different angles. The branches spread out far and wide—as if protecting them from the outside world—and the entire tree sparkled in the darkness from the beads of light hanging from each limb. An energy hummed around it, growing louder as he neared, almost as if the tree was the very power that kept this entire place afloat. But the most amazing part of the tree was its trunk. It was easily as thick as seven ship hulls.
Doraan felt like an ant beside it.
“Skies above,” Kamira said as she walked up beside him.“It's colossal.”
“Do you think that they could have made it any bigger?”
Kamira laughed, “I don’t know. Maybe if all the Earth Sorcerers worked together. What kind of tree is it? It looks so strange.”
“I’m not sure it's replicated after any tree we have at home in Emmoria. I think it's completely new—Sorcerer created.” Even the trunk wasn’t like the bark of the trees back home. It was a strange pinkish-red color, smooth and shiny like glass.
“They would have had to create it from some root or seed, possibly altering it somehow. It’s so beautiful,” Kamira said as she reached out a hand, placed it on the tree, and gasped. “It’s so cold! It feels like ice. Here, touch it.”
She grabbed his wrist and pulled him toward the base of the tree until his palm was flush against it. An electric spark shot into his hand at the contact, spreading through him like lightning. He didn’t feel cold, but heat—so hot he yanked his hand back, inspecting it to make sure it wasn’t burned. But only a smooth, unmarred flash stared back at him.
“What happened?” Kamira asked, taking his hand to look at his palm. “Are you okay?”
“It felt like my hand was on fire,” he whispered, brows drawn together.
“Really?” Kamira brushed her palm against his. “Strange, your hand does feel hot.”
“And yours is freezing, what…” He faltered. He suddenly turned to her, staring directly into her blue eyes, looking at her with a perceiving, curious eye. Melik had said someone on board theCursed Soulwas a Sorcerer. It was the only way to find this place and there was no way any of his crew were. There was only one person it could be. “Who are you?” he asked, taking a step closer to her.
Kamira frowned and took a step away from him. “What do you mean?”
He didn’t have a chance to question her further as a voice came from the direction of the festival. “I see that you have discovered our Legion tree.” It was Lariin, the Fire Sorceress they met when arriving. She came up to stand between them.
“This tree is a culmination of all four elemental powers. We all put a portion of our gifts into its creation, melding them together. It symbolizes unity between the Sorcerers, as well as a remembrance to the Legions who sacrifice themselves to save us during the rebellion.”
Doraan didn’t miss the quick glance she gave to him when talking about the rebellion. Melik hadn’t wasted any time in telling these people who his father was then.
“It’s what we’re celebrating tonight. Today marks forty years we have been here—the beginning of the Temple and the creation of the Legion unity tree.”
Doraan didn’t know much about Legions, only that they were the most powerful Sorcerers ever to exist, able to control all the elements and perform horrific acts. It had been his father’s ultimate goal to seek them out and destroy them ever since he took over Emmoria. It was a fixation. Ruling was an obsession to him, so much so that he practically ignored his family. Doraan snorted at the thought, wondering why he had ever tried to gain his father’s love and approval. None of that even mattered anymore. He was never going home, and he was never going to see his father ever again.
Music began to play behind them. The festival was starting.
Doraan looked over to where Kamira had been standing only moments ago, but she was gone. His nostrils flared and he groaned. He wanted to ask her more questions. If she was a Sorceress, so many things would make sense. Number one being how she was able to get onto theCursed Soulwhen no other had.
The music picked up, a chorus of strings and horns filtering through the air, sweeping around him and drawing his attention to them. Suddenly, the water from the neighboring fountains sprang forth, arching overhead, shaping into a great water serpent. It slithered through the air, raining droplets of cool water down on everyone before diving back into the fountains from which it came. Next, the earth rumbled beneath his feet, and he looked down to see shapes form in the grass. The elemental symbols were all molded into the ground in a checkered pattern all around them. Wind whistled in his ears, and he looked up to the sky once again, noticing a silken sheet dancing in the air, moving like a ballerina as it twirled above everyone in perfect rhythm to the music.
The Sorcerers were each using their gifts for the sheer beauty of what they could do. They weren’t using it to harm—they were using it to bring joy and to entertain. The music picked up its tempo and many of the Sorcerers began to dance with one another. Laughter rose high over the festival, and Doraan expected to feel lighter. He expected to feel a happiness he hadn’t felt in so long, but the music, the use of sorcery all around him, the strange tree behind him, and the incessant buzzing in the air around him…it made him feel as if he couldn’t fully catch his breath.
Doraan stumbled back knocking into a couple dancing behind him. “S—sorry,” he ground out, and they each furrowed their brows at him, asking if he was alright. “Fine,” he bit out.
Sweat beaded on his forehead, dripping down his face and into his eyes as he blinked rapidly against the sting and his breathing became erratic.
What was happening? That same burning that had been coursing through him with every emotion he had felt these past weeks raged hotter, to the point of pain. He ripped at his clothing, desperate to feel the cool air around him, anything but this stifling heat, but his limbs felt weak, his fingers unable to work properly.
He fell back against something hard. The tree. But the instant he touched its smooth surface, that burning sensation inside of him turned feral. He was positive this would be his end. He was going to erupt like a volcano that had been building to explode for years and years.
Doraan pushed himself away from the tree, his vision beginning to blur from the agony, and tumbled forward, barrelling into one of the lantern poles. As soon as his hand grabbed onto the pole, glass shattered around him, the flames of the lantern exploding outward, shooting balls of fire across the festival. Doraan could just make out the screams in the crowd, but all he was focused on was his hand.
He stared wide-eyed at the flames licking his fingertips. He pulled his hand away, but the fire only followed, spreading out over his palm and stroking his hand like an owner would their dog. To his astonishment, he felt no singe, no burning pain, only coolness as it continued to roam up his arm and across his shoulders, down into his other palm.
That excruciating heat that had been coursing through him moments earlier now gone.
