Page 75 of A Wrecking of Salt and Fire

The seer eyed her with curiosity. “The Elliniká Glóssa did not use the same characters we write with now. It had its own unique script, one I am afraid is a lost art.”

“Would you be able to teach me? What each of them means, how to write them?” Katrin circled one particular character over and over. It looked like an upside down horseshoe that flared out slightly from each side.

Thalia sighed a low long breath. “I can, Princess, but right now we have more pressing things to learn.” She pointed at the long wooden bow.

Katrin would have done anything not to pick it up, to avoid learning how to use one more weapon. To keep Thalia and Leighton, who stood by and watched their exchange, from seeing how utterly terrible she was at the sport. She fought out an uneasy grimace. “Right—archery first.”

“Ok now, I am going to need you to stand upright like this,” Thalia moved Katrin’s body with her delicate hands so she was standing, feet staggered, arms up in a t-shape, her right arm pulling back to the string. “Good. Make sure your stance is firm, but relaxed.”

Katrin bobbed her head back, brows scrunching toward each other. “Isn’t that a contradiction? Firm but relaxed?”

Thalia rolled her violet eyes. “You get my point. Now you are going to want to aim the bow down and nock the arrow like so.” Thalia demonstrated with her own bow. “You’ll want to have your second finger above the arrow, your middle and ring fingers below when you pull back. Now lift the bow back up to aim straight at the circle we have painted on the tree.” Katrin followed along closely. “Good. Then you'll just want to pull back using the line along your ear as a guide, and let the arrow fly.”

The seer released the arrow, and it flew through the air, hitting the target dead center. Katrin tried next and hers barely went halfway to her target. Thalia cringed at the poor showing of skill. “Lift your elbow up just slightly, that will take off some pressure, transferring it to your shoulder. It will make it easier to aim with distance.”

So the princess tried yet again. Over and over until her quiver was empty and she needed to collect the arrows from the ground below. Not a single one had hit the target, not even hit the tree. A low sigh escaped Katrin’s lungs. She could have sworn even Mykonos snickered at her.

As Katrin retrieved the evidence of her lack of skill and promise for archery, the little white creature pranced around the woods, pawing at various insects and chasing small furry animals from their homes. She climbed up branches to watch tiny winged insects flutter about. Jumping from the trees to catch them in her paws.

Katrin found it distracting and a bit amusing to see Mykonos so carefree and wild. Yes—she would sometimes drop a mouse or two at the door to their quarters on The Nostos, but otherwise she mostly slept or watched the sea pass by on deck, letting the rays of the sun warm her, lulling her into a dreamland. But here, she was truly in her element.

“Princess, you really should be focusing on the target, not Myko, considering you’ve missed every one.”

Katrin’s head shrunk into her shoulders as her lips formed a tight line. She hated being bad at anything, and archery—gods, she was worse than bad. The princess was abysmal.

“I know, but she’s so cute. Watch! She can catch that winged insect in her paws. How is that even possible? It’s so fast I can barely see it.” Katrin was in awe of the little creature.

Thalia smiled brightly. It was a reflection of her, Katrin guessed, the wild curiosity the cat had in that moment. “She’s used to being cooped up on that ship for months. When we take our short stays in Skiatha, she revels in exploring the woods. It’s a release of kinds—for the both of us.”

The princess understood how Mykonos felt—how Thalia felt. Being cooped up on The Nostos for so long had begun to make her stir crazy. She was glad to be here, in the woodsy air surrounded by earth and mountains and trails to stretch her legs and run. To smell the musky scents of tilled dirt and cut grass and evergreens as she wound through the paths, letting all her tension go.

“Enough of the sentimental talk, you two, Ander had strict orders that Katrin needed to focus during today’s lesson. Apparently her lack of, dare I say, seriousness during our session yesterday has him worried.”

Katrin rolled her eyes. The captain was such a thorn in her side when it came to anything fun. But at least he was speaking to her again, no more of that strange silence and disdain he had the first few days.

So she tried. Again. And again. And again. But not once could she even make it in the general range of the painted target.

Katrin gritted her teeth. Just one. All she had to make was one hit and they could go inside and call the day at least somewhat successful, but she could not even do that.

A glow so bright it was almost the shade of Thalia’s hair began to simmer over Katrin’s skin. It did not matter how many times she tried to listen to directions of Thalia and even Leighton’s slight tweaks, she could not hit a single target.

It was beginning to get ridiculous. She was a princess, skilled in battle and hand-to-hand combat, yet this little piece of wood and string would break her. What would her parents think? What would her people think if she could not do something as simple as hit the target?

“Princess!” Thalia began to scream. “Katrin! You—” But Katrin did not let her finish the thought. Her whole body was burning with such an intense heat that she bolted. Away from the woods, away from the nagging feeling that she was not fit for the role she would one day play in Alentus. All she left in her wake was a trail of scorched earth.

White-flecked pupils stared back at Katrin in the looking glass. She had not been keeping track of the days that had passed. Not anymore at least. But now she could feel it, the overwhelming sense of power that grew in her chest and limbs, threatening to snuff her out. Twenty-five years leading up to this moment, and she had no way of dampening back the light that coursed in her bloodstream. She was a star ready to burst. A supernova set to destroy everything around her.

Just breathe, her mother always said when she was younger and a trickle of her power would slip through. In, two, three, four. Out, two, three, four. But thinking of Kora only made her think of where she was now. What might be happening to her on Cyther.

Katrin clenched her eyes closed, gripping the sides of the dresser that the looking glass sat upon so hard that her nails dug into the wood.

“Starling, are you in there?” she heard Ander yell just before he barrelled in through her door.

“Deep breaths.” His voice quickly calmed. “You’ll be alright.” Katrin felt his hands cover both of hers, his body firm against her back, causing her very heart to tighten.

She felt something else too, the thickening of air around her as it dampened the light that burned her skin, that must be burning his if he stood flush with her body.

Still Katrin refused to open her eyes, to face the reality of what was happening. “You’re safe,” Ander whispered, this time his lips almost grazing her ear. Instead of the usual warm puffs of air that came from his mouth, his breath was icy, trickling over every inch of her.

---