Fire wasn’t supposed to move like water.
That was Reyna’s first thought as she watched the flames from the Cinderhold ships begin to curl and flow, responding to Kira’s coral sphere like eager students learning a new step.
“I don’t think that’s supposed to happen,” Reyna said, her water-mark tingling as the fire twisted into impossible shapes.
“None of this is supposed to happen.” Kira’s voice was distant, focused. The patterns on her arms blazed bright enough to illuminate the waves beneath them. “The spheres are translating somehow. Teaching fire to remember water’s oldest movements.”
Around them, the sea began to glow. Not the usual phosphorescent shimmer of deep water, but something else. Something older. Patterns of light rose from the depths, matching the scripts appearing in the flames above.
“Blasphemy!” The Cinderhold Commander’s voice cracked with rage and fear. “All ships, douse your flames! Don’t let them corrupt the fire’s purity!”
But it was too late. The element itself had caught the rhythm of something ancient, something it remembered in its very essence. On every Imperial vessel, torches and braziers flickered in defiance of their masters’ commands.
“You can’t stop it,” Reyna called across the waves, feeling a wild joy as the fire responded to her call. “Any more than you can stop the tide or hold back the storm. Fire wants to dance!”
“These patterns,” Kira breathed, studying the scripts that now wove through water and flame alike. “They’re like nothing in our archives, but…” She traced a repeating sequence of geometric shapes. “Look how they flow into each other. Fire into water, water into air, air into earth. It’s a language. The elements’ first language.”
Reyna pulled out her own coral sphere, smaller than Kira’s but singing the same song. As she held it up, the sphere’s patterns aligned with the scripts of light in the water, in the fire, in their birthmarks. The trader’s beads in her hair began to glow, each one catching and reflecting the ancient light.
And then the dance truly began.
Fire spiraled down from the Imperial ships, not burning but flowing, mixing with the glowing seawater in geometric patterns that felt as familiar as breathing. Reyna moved without thinking, conducting flames through forms that shouldn’t have been possible. Each gesture felt remembered rather than learned, as if her body had always known these steps and was only now being allowed to perform them.
“Your mark,” Kira said suddenly, eyes wide. “It’s changing.”
Reyna felt it – the water-mark around her throat wasn’t just glowing, it was growing, extending delicate tendrils of script down her shoulders and across her collarbone. Next to her, Kira’s spiral patterns were doing the same, spreading like frost across glass.
Beside her, Kira wove water into shapes that mirrored the fire’s dance. The young artificer’s movements were precise yet fluid, each gesture drawing more magic from her sphere. The water responded eagerly, remembering steps that had been forgotten when the elements were forced apart.
“Look!” One of Reyna’s crew pointed to the seabed below.
The patterns of light had reached the ocean floor, illuminating something massive. Ancient. The ruins of a temple, but unlike any Reyna had seen in her travels. Its walls were carved with spiraling scripts that seemed to move in the shifting light. Massive columns rose like the trunks of stone trees, their surfaces etched with scenes of elements dancing together – fire and water intertwined, earth and air embracing.
At the temple’s heart stood four towering figures, their features worn smooth by centuries underwater. Each held a sphere similar to Kira’s, but carved from different materials: coral, obsidian, crystal, and what looked like solid wind given form.
The coral spheres’ song grew louder, harmonizing with a deeper tone that seemed to come from the ruins themselves. Reyna felt it in her bones, in her blood, in the very essence of her magic.
“Kira?” Her voice shook slightly. “What exactly are we awakening here?”
Before Kira could answer, a tremor ran through the water. The Cinderhold ships rocked in sudden swells. And far below, the ruined temple began to move.
No. Not move. Transform.
The ancient stone flowered open like a sea anemone, its walls rearranging themselves into new configurations. The four figures at its heart began to dance, their stone forms fluid as water, trailing ribbons of script through the sea. Each surface blazed with patterns that matched their magic, their birthmarks, the very elements themselves.
“It’s a map,” Kira breathed, watching the temple’s transformation. “No… more than that. It’s a message. Look – these patterns here show mountain peaks, these are ocean currents, these are wind paths, and these…” She pointed to a series of interlocking geometric shapes. “These show how they all connect.”
From the Imperial flagship, chaos erupted. “They’re corrupting the sacred order!” The Commander’s voice rang with hysteria. “Fire teams, prepare to—”
His words cut off as every flame on his ship suddenly rose into the air, forming a perfect replica of the temple’s dancing figures. Around them, the water churned faster, fire and liquid spinning together in accelerating spirals. Their spheres sang higher, urgent now, almost desperate to be understood.
“There are others,” Reyna realized, seeing four distinct patterns emerge in the dance. “Others who can read these signs. Who can hear this song.”
“Of course,” Kira said, her eyes lighting up with understanding. “Four elements, four spheres in the temple, four…” She gestured to the patterns writing themselves across the waves. “Four who can translate what the elements are trying to tell us.”
In the mountains, in the sky, the same patterns would be appearing. The same message writing itself in stone and starlight.
Remember, the elements seemed to say. Remember what you were before you were divided.
A massive bubble of air burst up from the transformed temple, carrying with it the smell of earth and echoes of wind-song. For a moment, all four elements existed in perfect harmony, dancing together as they must have done in ancient times.
Then the bubble popped, and the night exploded into chaos.
The sea drew back like a startled animal. The fires snapped back to their ships, wild and disoriented. And the temple… the temple began to sink again, but not before leaving its message written in light across the waves.
Reyna grabbed Kira’s arm as both their birthmarks blazed with shared purpose. “Tell me you saw what I saw.”
“The temple, the spheres, the patterns…” Kira’s voice was breathless with excitement despite their danger. “The elements aren’t just awakening. They’re trying to find each other again.” She looked at the sinking temple, then at the patterns still swirling in water and flame. “And they’re showing us where to go.”
On the Imperial ships, recovery was swift and angry. “All vessels!” The Commander’s voice shook with rage. “Surround them! These abominations must not escape to spread their corruption!”
“Time to go?” Reyna asked, already feeling the fire responding to her call again, ready for a different kind of dance.
“Time to go,” Kira agreed. “But not back to Maralyd. The patterns in the temple – they showed a place where all four elements meet. Where earth touches sky, where fire meets water.”
“The question is,” Reyna said, gathering her power as the Cinderhold ships moved to encircle them, “who else saw this message? Who else will answer it?”
Above them, the winds carried star-script across the sky.
Below them, the seabed trembled with ancient secrets.
And in the distance, mountains began to sing.
The first dance was over.
The real journey was about to begin.