“Of course, my dear. You’ve been chosen by the magic of S’Kir to be a part of the key that unlocks our world and borders. While teaching our young ones is certainly a noble calling, you have been called elsewhere now.”
I was both intrigued and terrified by the potential.
The next weeks were a whirlwind of lessons, learning, planning, parties, decisions, dresses, and formal audiences.
I could barely tell which way was up.
At the same time, everything was exhilarating. I was talking to people, high ranked officials, magic users, defense force leaders, educators, leaders of the people of S’Kir every day.
The biggest shock for me was discovering I was being moved from my lovely little apartment near the market to the biggest of the dormitories on the temple campus.
Not just the biggest building, but I was being given the biggest of the apartments.
I didn’t have enough to furnish it. Most of the rooms were empty, and that was equal parts sad and exciting. Instead, I was excited until Lunella came to tell me that I had to have a receiving room.
“What on S’Kir for?”
“My dear.” She took my arm and walked me through the foyer into the back of the apartment. “You are becoming a very important person if you haven’t noticed.”
“I have, excellency. I’m not sure I understand it.” Pausing, I added, “I’m not sure I’m ready for it, either.”
Lunella’s grin was indulgent. I was still a child in her eyes. “We are never ready, Kimber. Millennia, two, five… we are never ready. But the magic has chosen you, and you are a piece of the puzzle—the puzzle we have been working for all these thousands of years.”
The woman managed to even sit elegantly on the worn chaise I had in the corner. “I am not sure of your role in the Breaking Times. But the magic called you to the mountain, and that means that you are a part of this. Not everything is revealed to us, but we have to trust that we are being guided toward a purpose.”
Danai took over my days soon after. The list of tasks to accomplish was stunning, but she was a driven woman, and she pushed through everything. If something needed to be done, she would persist until it was done.
I was exhausted.
Days before the first of the large, public celebrations, the Breaking Fire was lit in the inner courtyard of the Temple Masters’ residence. Eleven of the twelve masters were there, along with Elex and a few elders of the city.
It rose from the pit with a thousand dancing sparks and burned a bright white and yellow, throwing heat against the chill in the air. We stood silent, watching the steady flames as they settled into their home. The fire was oddly beautiful.
And lasted approximately two minutes before Master Dorian swept out of the building and extinguished it with his magic. No one should have been able to extinguish the fire, even the powerful Master Dorian.
“I have allowed this to go on long enough!” His voice split the air around us with anger and impatience.
Lunella, Danai, Tymon, Hedregon, and two more turned to see where he was approaching us. Elex pulled me against his side, protective of me around Dorian.
Elex witnessed one of the master’s rude and awful outbursts at me during a lesson earlier that week and had been angry with the ancient master ever since.
“You have allowed nothing, Master Dorian,” Tymon said, stepping toward him. “You have hidden like a coward and tried to destroy our celebrations. You have belittled and berated…well, everyone gathered here. You act worse than a spoiled child, and we are all exhausted from fighting against you.”
“You cannot stop the Breaking Time, Dorian,” Danai said.
“Don’t you know it’s not a celebration?” His head whipped around, pinning each of us with his burning gold eyes. “Don’t you know that all this ‘good news’ bullshit is what happens to facts when they are infused with myths? There should be no joy in this! There should be no celebration! This fire”—his finger whipped out and pointed to the embers—“signals terrible change.”
Steady and angry, he parsed the group with his gaze, and I bore the brunt with a hard, unwavering stare.
Trying to keep the fear of him down, I straightened my spine and spoke. “It is time for change. We have been stagnant for thousands of years.”
Without a rustle of his black and green robes, Dorian was in my face, looming over me.
“You are an infant. You have no idea what the Breaking Time will bring. Your joy and effervescence are out of place and out of line with the truth. You will suffer the most out of all of us for your naïveté and innocence, and I pity your existence in the face of the magic and the mountains falling.”
Elex yanked me back from the imposing figure and dared to challenge him. “Gods and stars, Dorian! She’s a grown woman! You terrorizing everyone here will never change what has to be!”
Dorian glowered at Elex for moving me away from him, but it didn’t stop him from grabbing my wrist and pulling me into his circle of influence again.
