“It’s hard to explain. Magic…appearedin my mind. Something I can’t make sense of—like a Crone speaking in tongues. But the sword was what helped me make sense of it all.”
Crossing over, Vi took the woman’s hand in hers, giving it a squeeze.
“The sword isn’t here now. But I am, and I will help you,” Vi vowed. “I know this magic, too. In a different way from you. But together, we can do this.”
Fiera opened her mouth in hesitation, then gave a small nod, abandoning any protest.
Together, they strode up to the door, standing at its right side. Fiera timidly rested her hand on one of the large crystals. Vi mirrored the motion, closing her eyes, and allowing herself to feel the magic within.
“Come to me,” Fiera whispered, her voice thin and almost afraid. “Mother, come to me.”
Vi tried to feel the magic seeping up from her marrow as she’d practiced, meeting the crystal under her palm. She drew on the crystal, allowing it to fill her, allowing it to be a catalyst. Yargen was within her. If Fiera had faith in the goddess, then so would Vi. She would entrust her mind and her actions into Yargen’s hands.
The stone drew her closer and Vi breathed, “Thrumsana,” her lips nearly touching the smooth crystal as though she had been subconsciously about to kiss it.
Magic flooded her. It swelled up from the crystal and ripped through her. Vi was helpless to the currents and allowed herself to be pulled along them. There was sound, but not of the same sort the first time she’d used the word. This was not the chaos that had assaulted Taavin.
A thrumming disturbed her thoughts. Vi opened her eyes once more to find Fiera drawing lines of flame along the door. But rather than burning orange, they burned blue.
“Fiera…” Vi whispered in awe.
The woman held out her left pinkie, swirling it through the air, as though she were a spinner drawing magic onto the spool. With the index finger of her right hand, she drew across the door. Lines and circles, interconnecting. The flames burned low and bright, lingering long after she finished them.
Vi quickly stepped around to Fiera’s other side. She grabbed one crystal with her left hand and took Fiera’s magic spinning hand with her right. Fiera looked at her a moment, her trance-like state startled.
“Keep going,” Vi encouraged. “Let me be a catalyst for you.”
Fiera nodded and then turned back to the door as though she was facing off against a great opponent. She took a deep breath, and threw herself back into her countless lines of flame. Vi drew out the crystal’s powers just as she had practiced all those nights with the sword. But when Vi had extracted the crystal’s magic before, she hadn’t known what to do with it. Fiera did. So she funneled the magic through her and into Fiera.
The woman’s flames began to harden, condensing into crystal. Fiera worked faster—every motion more decisive, every line wrought with fierce determination.
She slumped, nearly falling back. Vi caught her only because she’d already been holding the woman’s hand.
“I’m fine,” Fiera said before Vi could ask. “I must finish this… I must.”
Fiera continued with her determined fervor. Blue fire illuminated the room as much as crystals did. But every wild motion of Fiera’s hand seemed to throw her off-balance. Her cheeks were gaunt, her eyes dull.
“Fiera, stop this,” Vi whispered.
“What you said… it told me, I have to finish this. I heard it. I heard what must be done.”
Thrumsana… Taavin had told her never to use a word of power unless she fully understood what it did. This was the second time she’d used it on instinct. Just like the first, someone was suffering for her carelessness, trapped by the magicthrumsanaunleashed.
“Fiera—”
“It’s nearly finished.”
“Vi,” Deneya gasped. Her shock was so apparent that she didn’t even think to use the name Yullia in front of Fiera. “It’s a glyph. It’s a word of Yargen.”
Fiera pressed her palm into the center of the flames. Everything erupted at once. Fiera was thrown back, Vi with her. They tumbled and Deneya rushed forward, catching them both on an arm and easing their fall.
Vi looked from Fiera, slumped in Deneya’s arm, body limp and eyes closed, to the symbol on the door.
Just like with Sehra’s book, sounds filled her ears. The fire crystalized, cementing itself as fragile crystals on the door. In it, Vi saw a glyph of Yargen. A word that Vi had never heard or seen before.
“Rohko,” Vi breathed.
The chorus in her mind snapped into harmony. Everything came together at once as the thin crystal lines Fiera had made spiderwebbed out, growing as though time was progressing at twice its normal speed.
