When they speak, they start in their native tongue. It’s some sort of prayer to the gods, offering their knowledge freely to save their people.
“Prince Anders, we welcome you. Princess Raea, we welcome you,” one of the women says in the common language. “We have waited generations for the ones foretold. Your Bond was felt here, and we knew you would come.” Raea shifts anxiously beside me.
“Our Bond? How did you know we would come?”Raea asks.
The woman smiles. “Your Bond has been awakened. You feel it. That bridge between your souls. The first elder saw you two in a dream many millennia ago and was told that when the war came, andall peace was lost, you two would be mated and restore what should be.”
…Mated?
Raea's face scrunches in confusion while Professor Ainslyn shifts to her other side.
“Tell us, why have you come?” one of the men asks, sticking with the common language. I relay our findings of the books and our magic, but it’s Raea who asks if they are human.
The six look around, silently communicating with each other somehow. “We serve the second council and the true heir,” one of the women says.
The second council. We read about them. There were three. “And what is the second council?” Professor Ainslyn asks.
Instead of answering, the first woman moves to the fire, stroking it. “What are your powers, Prince?” the woman asks, studying me.
Good question. What are my powers? I know I can sense the veil and magic, Raea's aura, apparently wind and water, but only with her. I’ve been trying to figure it all out myself for so long that I’m not really sure what’s real and what isn’t. It all kind of blends into something that doesn’t make sense.
Even as a boy, I can remember being faster and stronger, but is that part of this, too? Are Raea and I even human? Our parents are human—I think. Raea was right to come here.
“I think,” I pause, looking at Raea. “I think I can manipulate air.”
The elder hums as if this doesn’t bother her one bit.
One of the men steps forward; he’s the youngest-looking of all of them. He also looks the most human. It’s only then that I realize that the woman at the fire shimmers beneath her dark skin, like pearlescent scales. I must be hallucinating, right? She looks at me then and nods as the man says, “Your lifeforce must be restored. The ancient blood calls to you, even without it, and with the gifts bestowed upon you by Astor and Calia, you have magic, even without your ancestral birthright.”
“Is that why I can sense the veil? I feel its power waning, and sometimes, I think I can hear it.” I shake my head. I sound insane.
One of the men responds from the other side of the room, “It is your job to protect her until she is ready.” He points to Raea.
The woman shifts her gaze to Raea, who is nibbling on her lip nervously. “And your light, why do you fear it?”
Soraea winces like she’s been slapped. “I don’t,” she whispers.
It’s the man who answers, “You’re scared of your powers, Princess. Magic is not something that has been given to you. It flows through you, just as your blood does. It is you. You must embrace who you are.”
Raea falls quiet for a minute, still nibbling on her bottom lip. I grip her hand tighter, running a thumb over her hand. “And who is that?” she finally asks quietly.
It’s the other female who answers, “Our savior and mate to the young Prince.” Her head swivels back to me.
“What’s a mate?” Professor Ainslyn asks on our behalf. Raea's gaze remains fixed on me, but something washes over her. An understanding, maybe. It explains the otherness we feel that isn’t a regular Lumos Bond. “They aren’t Lumos Bonded?”
Their leader, the eldest male, then speaks, crossing his arms as something akin to anger fills his features. “The Lumos Bond is a pathetic excuse for a mating Bond. It’s blasphemy. Mating Bonds are rare. Two souls united as one. Powerful. You do not have a Lumos Bond.”
My attention moves back to the elders. “So what do we do now?”
The second woman kneels beside the fire, and the other woman follows. “Our own powers have never been fully revealed outside of our people for a millennium, but we will now unveil their secret to you.” They gather around the fire, holding hands, including us in their circle.
The fire at the center of the room flashes, rising to the ceiling before slowly shifting to a picture of the first elder’s dream of Raea and me. The image changes to Raea radiating her starlight and projecting it from her body while I stand at her side, a tornado sweeping past us. The third image shows us with a little baby in Raea's arms as the three of us stand before a crowd of people.
More images—past, present, and future—of Raea and me, weaving our lives together. Us as kids, wrapped in that cocoon of starlight. Another of us at school, down at the river, sharing our first real kiss. The next is another image of us fighting back to back as shadows swarm us and creatures crawl from it, with her starlight glowing to keep them away.
“You have been given great gifts with great responsibility. We share our knowledge with you now,” the second man says. “You must restore what is yours. Dangerous days lie ahead.”
Their skin changes before us, almost dissolving, becoming scales. Only their faces remain “human,” but large gills cover their necks, and their hands and feet become webbed. Along the women’s backs, a spine of sharp fins pokes out. The men have hardened cone-like spikes protruding.
