“Are you all right, Vann? Ner’Feon? Ka’Prinn?”
I try to move and more water leaks into my suit. The fear clawing at my nerves crawls to my throat and tightens. “My suit is cracked,” I say.
The relentless dampness creeps further, a chilling embrace threatening to drench me head to toe. Each icy droplet feels like a cruel hand tightening around my throat, stealing the warmth from my body. It’s almost as if I were back in Zlosa. Without the shield of the crystal suit, I am left vulnerable, my very survival hanging by a fragile crack that threatens to spread at any moment.
“Estela,” Teo says frantically. “Keep talking. I’ll find you.”
I can’t breathe.
“Estela!” he shouts.
My mouth opens and closes, only for a sob to break free. My mind races, grasping for answers in my memories. When I helped Liana make this suit, we combined heat and magic to break down and reform the crystal. I relied heavily on her ability. It might be possible to use the heat from my light magic, but I can’t remember how to draw in air.
My love, I can’t find you.
Teo, my suit?—
The dark rises above us, all sensation and shadow. Unbidden, my Fuegorra starts to glow brighter and brighter. An undercurrent wraps around me, pulling me physically off the stoney ocean floor. I scream, and the water stops seeping in.
Teo’s voice shoots through the water.
“Estela!”
The crimson glow of the stone casts a red sheen to the swirling flecks of sea waste as they dance before me. My voice is frozen in my throat, fear gripping me tight as my husband's question fades into the background. The water ripples ominously once more, and a massive object passes over me. Despite my inability to move, my magic thrums with an intensity that terrifies me, its power feeling alien and uncontrollable.
The power sings directly to my Fuegorra, causing the crystal magic to intensify. Images start to pass before my eyes. Some are memories, and some could be visions of the future, but they pass too quickly to pluck one out and examine it.
I tug against my restraints, feeling the pulse of crystal and stone all around me. The magic pushes deeper into another magic connected to the stone in my chest. It slides past the gem and onto the glowing thread running from my head to my toes.
All it takes is one pluck, a spark, and I catch fire. My red glow transforms to white heat.
The light continues to expand, brightening the tremendous dark hole surrounding us. Then a colossal stony hand stretches back out, controlling the currents that hold me in place. The graceful, powerful arc of masculine fingers reaches toward me until, at last, glowing blue eyes snap open.
I am close enough to look directly into the vast circles. They appear to be made of two smoldering sapphires. Long locks of pure white marble float around a grey head as it gazes at me.
My heart skips a beat, but exclamations come from beneathme. I can hardly hear them. When I try to twist down and see Teo, the magic tightens.
“Daughter of the Light Weaver,” a voice as old as the world rumbles through the water. It snakes through the liquid and salt until it radiates through my whole soul. It is somehow quiet and booming.
“Who are you?” I choke out, feeling those penetrative eyes bear into my flesh, searching my heart. Seeing every selfish choice, every drop of blood I’ve spilled. Every evil thing that hid inside me.
“You do not know me?” the enormous stone man says to me. “I am the father of the trolls, King of Stone and Crystal. Lover of the Goddess of Stars. My children call me Endu.”
The word makes everything around us rumble that much harder. I remain frozen, lost to his words. Helpless to his power.
“You are… a god,” I breathe. It’s so quiet I wonder if he can truly hear it.
He nods slowly. “I am.”
The statement feels more profound than it sounds as if his existence stretches far beyond the confines of my mortal understanding.
I twist away and look down at Teo. All of the men have been bound in a similar fashion, and each tugs against their restraints. The space separating us is substantial, as they linger far closer to the ocean floor than me. My bound arm reaches toward Teo.
I can just barely make out how his eyes are widened in disbelief, and a mix of shock and wonder dancing across his features. After a moment of stunned silence, his voice trembles with awe as he calls out, "My god, Endu, is that really you?"
Endu's gaze shifts from me to Teo, a small smile spreading across his stony features. “Yes. It is I,” he rumbles, the sound resonating through the water.
The other men remain silent, but not Teo. “I had not thought this place an appropriate dwelling place for a god. Do you not reside in the center of the earth?”
