Page 73 of Celestial Bodies

Klorin’s roar ripped through the air as he leaped over boulders. The faint cry of the horses was almost imperceptible as the onslaught of rubble gobbled them up.

The ground shook again, even stronger than before. Klorin stumbled but caught himself and kept going. Dacias shook Souzie off and ran back down. He had to help. He didn’t know what, but he had to do something. The ground rattled his bones. A cascade of destruction raced behind Klorin. The tremor didn’t let up. It shook them violently.

The ground opened up right before Klorin. He stopped and tried to maneuver around the opening when the tremor intensified. The crack opened wider, swallowing Klorin.

Dacias’s agonized roar ripped through the air as he sprinted to his brother. The wreckage from the crumbling volcano continued to fall, filling up the crack and burying Klorin alive. Then, the tremor stopped.

The rubble settled, and Dacias ran to where Klorin disappeared and roared to the sky. He shifted, and the tears flowed as he cursed the Mother Planet. No. This couldn’t be happening. He wouldn’t accept it.

Dacias began digging, anguished wails tearing apart his throat as the jagged stones sliced his hands.

Souzie appeared next to him. “KLORIN! KLORIN!”

She dug, too. Together, they pulled the rocks away through gasping sobs.

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Chapter 32

Julen

Julen gazed at the creatures before him, dumbfounded by what he saw. Characters from childhood stories were standing right in front of him. The smallest one, a young fae, approached him, tilting her head with a peculiar gaze. She came closer until she was mere inches apart from him.

“A human?” she asked.

Blinking twice, Julen noticed her eyes were a dazzling, otherworldly azure with silver outlines. She stared into Julen’s eyes, and he fell into a trance.

After a moment, she spoke to the beasts behind her, “He is the king’s son. But we can trust him. He’s here because he did the king wrong.” Then, she lifted her head slightly and said, “Good for you, Julen.”

Julen realized he had been in a trance, and the sound of his name snapped him out of it. She knew his name and knew what he had done to Haligran.

“You can see into my mind.” It wasn’t a question. Julen spoke with wonder.

“Yes, one of my gifts.” She said it without a trace of arrogance. It was a matter of fact. “I can see you possess extraordinary gifts yourself. Naturally, you wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

Julen spoke in a whisper; there wasn’t a reason for it, but her closeness and cryptic way of speaking seemed to call for some kind of affectation to the question, “Who are you?”

“I am Anjular—the Fae Princess of Caligon. And you are Julen, Prince of Lapistra. Or so you were.”

“So, I was…”

“You are not the first human they attempted to submerge into the blackness. You are, however, the first who survived the process. Tell me, Julen, how did you become inordinately powerful?”

Julen was taken aback by this statement. He wasn’t inordinately powerful. Julen had only just begun to manifest. “I am not…why do you think that?”

She furrowed her brow. “I do not think so. It is a fact. Do you see others in your territory manifesting in ways similar to yourself?”

Julen was speechless.Can she see everything in my head?Her statement made his mind race. He thought it odd that he could levitate but didn’t think he was powerful. No. It had taken so long for him to manifest in the first place.

“I only just started manifesting. It took so long, I didn’t know if I was weak or…”

The snake-woman slithering to the back of Anjular halted that thought. Julen’s breath hitched. “How…what…I’m so confused. You’re just stories for children. I must be unconscious. I have to be dreaming this.”

The snake-woman spoke, “Humans. Such small brains.”

Anjular tsked as she spoke. “Humans are not as familiar with how deep the magic of Vexora goes. This must be quite a shock to his fragile mind.”

“Precisely!Fragile.Delicate, tiny little brains.”

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