She knew this glyph—inside and out. Her upbringing as a Firebearer gave her an additional lens to understand it that Vi did not have withdurroe. Fire was something she understood or, at the least, had ample practice with.
Just like Taavin had said… The words were not just words. They weren’t mere sounds or symbols. They were meaning combined with understanding brought to life with intent. It was greater than the sum of any individual part.
Woven lines and circles appeared above her hand, streaking through the air in bright beams of magic. It carved the pure essence of destruction itself. Vi may not understand everything yet, when it came to being a Lightspinner.
But she understood how to make something burn.
Power sparked up her chest, little crackles like tiny fireworks exploding behind her ribs. It was as though they were rushing along her arm in a race where the finish line was somewhere behind her fingertips. A similar glyph appeared surrounding the twig. Her magic had never looked so bright—so confident.
As quickly as it came, it went, snuffed out with an almost audiblecrack. The scent of smoke filled the air and there was a small pile of blackened ash where the twig once was. Vi turned up toward Sehra, balling her hand into a fist.
“On your first attempt… Just like I said, princess, you will soon surpass all I can teach.”
* * *
Back in her room, sweating and exhausted, Vi locked her door. She’d sent all her servants away—reassuring them several times over that she could, indeed, bathe and dress for bed on her own. It was early for her to be secluding herself for the night, so they gave her strange looks, but eventually agreed.
Let them gossip to Andru about the strange princess, Vi thought bitterly. He may well be trying to kill her anyway. Did it really matter what he thought?
There was something she wanted to try without an audience.
Something had changed in her, in that fighting pit. There was a different feeling about her—her magic specifically. A feeling of control, of a deep understanding she’d never quite mastered before.
Taking a deep breath, Vi held out her hand and let her magic lift off her skin. It hovered in the air, almost gracefully, tiny wisps of bright white light woven into threads that only she could command. For the first time in her life, Vi thought there might be something beautiful to magic. Not just any magic, buthermagic.
“Narro hath,” she uttered, and willed the symbol to take shape just as it had withjuthin the pit. She knew the words. She knew her intent. And, most importantly it seemed, she now understood how to draw out her power in a stable way.
The two magic words left her mouth, but all Vi thought was,show me. She wanted more than a disembodied voice. She wanted a stable connection—an opportunity to truly talk to Taavin face to face as she did at the apexes.
This time, when she summoned Taavin, Vi made it clear to her magic exactly what she was expecting.
The glyph lifted off her hand. For a brief moment, Vi worried she was losing control. But the supreme sense of rightness surrounding the wordsnarro hathcontinued to fill her and Vi trusted in her act. She trusted in her magic.
Starting near the ceiling, the magic circles spiraled downward. They gave off strands of magic that took form. And in the next moment, Vi’s black eyes met a pair of bright green ones.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“How… what…?”He stole the words from her lips as he looked around her room, shock on his face. “How did you—?”
“I did what you said to—”
But before she could finish, the magic sputtered. The symbol unraveled and vanished from her grasp like a line cast out to sea, slipping through her fingers as it caught on a tide. She stared at his eyes as they widened by a fraction, and then he was gone. The light vanished.
Vi widened her stance some. She wasn’t about to give up that easily. Not after she’d come so far. She raised her hand and repeated the process. “Narro hath.”
The light spun out, and she watched him appear once more. So she could confidently make the glyphs now—brighter and more complete than before. But she still couldn’t seem to sustain them.
“Anchor it,” Taavin said quickly, as if reading her mind. “Keep the circle around you, connected to you. Yes, closer to your hand, don’t project it out so much. It’ll be more stable that way.”
Vi took a deep breath, focusing more on the magic pouring from her fingertips than on the man himself. She tried to imagine it winding around each finger, tying it there like a kite string. Only when it seemed secure did she dare shift her gaze to him.
Taavin was focused on her arm. He was still cast in light, mostly transparent, shifting between there and not. It was less than the connection they seemed to have at the apexes, but far more than what she’d managed thus far.
“How are you doing this?” he whispered after a long moment. His eyes trailed up her arm and to her face, searching. Vi dared to meet them, searching back.
“The same way I have been talking to you until now—narro hath. I’ve just managed to actually make a glyph this time rather than the haphazard approach I’ve been doing until now.” Vi spoke slowly, trying to keep as much focus as possible on keeping her power stable. “I’m getting better at it.”
“No, that’s not how this works… this type of connection…” His gaze shifted from her hand to her chest. Vi followed it, looking down. There, just like during her very first vision, like the ruins, was a faded symbol shimmering over her watch. “You have an imprinted token of mine.”
