The taskers allowed parents to teach their children how to use magic, but to pass on the traditions behind it was strictly forbidden. That hadn’t stopped Aizel’s mother from whispering stories to her in the dark of night, huddled under blankets, just as her mother had done with her.
The guard reached the end of the beach and turned back around. When his back was turned, Aizel quietly let out the breath she had not realized she was holding.
She slipped the vial back into her sack, which she then secured tightly around her waist. Fortunately, it was small as she had very few belongings to bring with her.
Before she could overthink her final move, Aizel sprinted silently to the open water. As she ran across the beach, she swooped down and picked up a few handfuls of seaweed that had washed ashore.
Her heart was pounding so quickly she felt it would escape from her chest.
She knew she must be mad for even attempting this. Her father said it took over a week for a ship to sail to them from the mainland. She was about to undertake that same journey—swimming—in the span of a night.
If she failed? She would be stranded in the middle of the sea.
Slipping off her outer layer of clothing, she tossed it onto the sand behind her. Hopefully, in the morning, when they discovered she was missing, they would assume she had drowned. If the taskers thought she had escaped, her family could be in danger.
Besides, it would be easier to swim in the single layer of her brown underdress.
The water swirling around her ankles was bitterly cold. She wanted to stand in it until her legs adjusted to the new temperature—or at least went numb—but she didn’t have the time. The guard could turn around and scan the area at any second. Dark though it was, she needed to be under the surface before that happened.
She plunged into the icy depths, her lungs seizing up with shock as her body adjusted to the cold temperature. She hated the feeling of water washing over her dry scalp. The cold felt like it was sending shivers of ice into her mind.
For a moment, her body refused to respond to her control and she wondered if she had actually frozen.
She tried to inhale through her nose, but nothing happened. Breaking waves rolled over her, tossing her body against the hard sand below.
Pushing away from the ground with her feet, she propelled herself headfirst into the waves to get to the open water. The physical motion restored some warmth to her insides as the freezing water finally numbed her skin.
Having adjusted to the shock, her lungs begged for air. Fighting her natural instinct to resurface and breathe, Aizel inhaled through her nose.
Instead of drowning in saltwater, the oil she had applied to her nostrils worked its magic. She inhaled air. It felt slightly strained, as though she were breathing through a layer of heavy fabric, but at least she was breathing.
As her body adjusted to the shock of the temperature and the slower breathing pattern, she felt calmer. She had made it out of the house, past the guard, and into the open sea.
Only one more part of her plan remained to be carried out.
Swimming back up to the surface, she brought her head above the water and tossed the strands of seaweed around her neck so they would not float away.
She had chosen tonight because the clear skies above boasted a full moon. Her legs dancing beneath her with the ease of a practiced skill, she carefully held her upper body above the water. Reaching back into her soaked pack, she retrieved the small bottle once again.
Rather than open the vial, she held it up over her head, making sure not to block the glass handle. She twisted it until a single facet of the handle caught a ray of moonlight. The light streamed through the glass prism, breaking into a rainbow of colors.
Taking care not to break the reflection, she redirected the flow of light deep into the dark sea below her.
She was trying to attract a sunfish, a type of large fish she had discovered on her dives. They lived deep in the cold depths of the sea but eagerly swam to the surface every morning to warm themselves in the light of the sun.
The rays of the moon were not quite as strong, but hopefully, they would do the trick.
After flashing the light into the water for a few moments, she slipped the vial back into the sack around her waist. She grabbed the seaweed from around her neck then dove back under the surface.
A few moments later, she could see a large shadow swimming toward her through the gloomy water. As the fish drew nearer, it split apart and two giant sunfish circled around her, their fist-sized eyeballs peering curiously at her.
Aizel floated in the water, waving her arms as gently as she could to keep herself in place without frightening the two massive fish.
She recognized Mola—the one she had befriended—by the indent in his upper fin. Both fish were shaped like a large round shield. They were as tall as she was and quite a bit longer. Viewed from the front, however, they were quite thin. A fin equal to the height of the fish itself protruded from the top and bottom, giving it a balanced silhouette.
Mola stopped circling her and nudged his massive face closer to her body.
He was clearly here for the seaweed treat he knew she had brought him.
