Page 11 of Ecliptic

Very well. With what little power the Elder Spirits possess, we will grant you a gift. Thanks to the noxlily petals beneath your skin, we have anchor points to restore your body. You will not merely carry the Light. You will be reforged in it.

An astral gateway appeared before me.

I gathered my incorporeal self, summoned my courage, and pushed through the silver veil of light.

6

I stepped out of Indrasyl’s hollow and opened my eyes to a dark forest, my body bare like a wolf in the moonlight. As much as I wanted to run and howl with the energy swirling through my limbs, I knew I needed to return to the village.

The black dress Erovos had fashioned for me lay in a destroyed heap on the ground. I refused to put the horrid thing back on my body, but I couldn’t return to the village wearing nothing.

A notion struck me. If Erovos could create a dress of darkness, I could create one out of light.

I summoned pinpricks of Light upon my skin, allowing the specks to create luminous paths along my body. Heavenly jewels draped down my chest and torso like liquid moonlight turned to fabric. The Light clung to my waist and hips, sparkling against me until it flared out and trailed behind me in a radiant train.

I was dressed in a glimmering gown that looked as if millions of diamonds had been painstakingly placed upon my skin one stone at a time.

My senses were keen, hyperaware, and my ear twitched.

There were eyes on me.

My sharp gaze darted to a massive figure hiding behind a tree. His dull, mossy stare looked frightened and unsure.

“You can come out,” I said to Graem, and he slowly emerged from behind the tree.

“Master?” he asked, somehow looking filthier than when I saw him a few minutes ago. He always wore tattered clothes, but now they were threadbare and barely hanging on. Demil must have done a number on him when he escaped.

“He’s gone,” I said plainly.

“Master?” he asked, gesturing to me.

“No. You no longer have a master, Graem. Is there somewhere else you can go?” I asked. I didn’t want to hurt him. I knew he had been under Erovos’ control all this time.

He nodded his misshapen head, and for the first time, a spark of light shone in his flat eyes.

“Go there and never come back. Do you understand?”

He nodded again, his body twitching with eagerness.

“Good. Now, go!” I commanded, and without hesitation, he ran into the woods. The ground shook and trembled as he fled from what I could only assume was a life full of suffering.

I turned away from the giant and closed my eyes.

Home,I thought with the merest of whispers, and thousands of beautiful threads unraveled before me in a celestial chandelier. I gently searched through the strands until I found what I was looking for.

The shimmering thread to the Wyn village came easily. I gave it a gentle tug and rushed through a channel of stars until my feet landed on solid ground. I marveled at the grace with which I arrived just outside the village. I’d never traveled with such speed and elegance before.

My hair and dress tousled around me as I settled from my crossing in a beam of light. It came so naturally, unlike before when traveling had been such a struggle.

I welcomed in the sight of the village—a place I had come to call home since learning the Alcreon Light flowed within my veins. Teardrop domes bloomed on the horizon like wooden flower buds, and the forest brushed against the purple-and-sapphire sky.

I took a deep breath and curled my toes into the plush grass, but my brows knit together in confusion. The ground was pokey and dry—an odd sensation for a village that was perpetually verdant.

My gaze darted up as a bounding white wolf charged toward me, and I dropped to my knees. “Sabra!” I choked out. My heart soared at the sight of her.

After she attempted to save Ven, Graem had hurled her into a tree, where she’d lain lifeless and unmoving. The sound of her snapping in half still haunted me, but now she ran without the slightest limp.

How had Takoda mended her so quickly? The healer told me his medicines worked best on flesh and that bones were another matter. The only plant capable of mending Sabra was a noxlily, but Rowen had used the last one on me in the Crystal Crypts. Not enough time had passed for Takoda to grow more of the healing flower.

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