Two points.
I exhale slowly, my fingers curling at my sides. “Okay.”
Valen lowers his voice. “Now, imagine folding those two points so that they meet. Like folding a napkin.”
A napkin.
It feels too simple, too ordinary for what he’s asking me to do, but I try.
One point—here. The chamber, the dust, the waiting silence. The second point—the forest. Calryx. The escort of horses and soldiers.
Valen watches me. “The space between them doesn’t matter. Distance doesn’t exist. You are simply making two points meet.”
I see it. The fold. One edge drawn toward the other. Pressed close. Touching.
“Now say these words:
“Water sees the path to commit
Earth shapes the needed split
Fire activates the hidden gate
Air sustains the traveler’s fate.”
I repeat them softly, folding the image in my mind—two corners drawn together like a napkin.
At first, nothing happens.
Then, a flicker. A spark, low in my chest, winding throughmy veins. Something stirs. Something that has been waiting. Watching.
I lift my hands instinctively, fingers trembling as a ripple of energy moves through me.
And then light.
Tiny, glittering specks rise around me, soft and weightless, floating like fireflies in a meadow on a summer’s night. At first, they drift aimlessly, flickering in and out of sight. Then they move.
Faster. Swirling, gathering, a pulse of motion that’s building, growing, spiraling outward. Their glow shifts from bright white to deep violet. A pulse of energy hums through the air, but it’s not wild. Precise. Intentional.
A sharp gasp. Lyra. I hear her suck in a breath, the sound sharp, disbelieving.
I barely register it before Thane moves. He steps closer. His eyes, wide, track the spiral of light, the impossible shape it’s becoming. He looks all around us. The glow on the shelves. The carved stone. The stars.
It’s alive. And it’s mine.
The specks swirl tighter.
They weave into form—into structure. A shape. A circle. Roughly my height, glowing, trembling with potential.
It’s working. The portal’s forming.
The swirling lights pulse faster, faster, faster, then the air shifts. A ripple moves through the forming circle, the edges shimmering like heat on stone, like light reflected on water. For a moment, the portal wavers, unstable. Then steadies. A perfect, glowing ring of violet light, humming softly in the air before us.
Silence. Then Valen exhales, a slow, satisfied breath. “Well done.”
Jarek lets out a whoop, smacking Rian on the shoulder. “Hell yes! Our very own portal-weaver.”
Garrick exhales dramatically, dragging a hand through his hair. “And here I was, mentally preparing myself to fight that worm again. Thank the gods.”
