The first thing Reyna learned about ancient magic – it had a thing for dramatic timing.
“Tell me that’s not what I think it is,” she said, watching dark shapes emerge from the mist behind the Cinderhold fleet. Ships, but wrong somehow. Their hulls seemed to drink in the light, and their wake left patterns that hurt to look at.
“Depends.” Kira’s voice was steady, but her coral sphere hummed with tension. “Do you think those are ships that shouldn’t exist, crewed by people who want to make sure we never try that dance again?”
“Pretty much exactly that, yeah.”
They stood at the helm of Reyna’s ship, their combined magic still rippling through the waves from their shared dance. The temple’s ruins had stopped glowing, but its message remained blazed into their minds – and their birthmarks.
The patterns on Reyna’s neck tingled. “Your Archives ever mention anything about ships like that?”
“Nothing’s supposed to exist before the Elemental Separation.” Kira’s fingers traced the expanding scripts on her arms. “At least, that’s what they taught us. But the temple’s memories…”
“Tell a different story?” Reyna watched as more of the dark ships emerged from the mist. The Cinderhold fleet was noticing them too – their neat formation breaking up like scattered birds.
“Tell the true story,” Kira corrected. “The separation wasn’t natural. It was enforced. By them.”
The nearest dark ship turned, showing angles that seemed to fold in on themselves. Just looking at it made Reyna’s head hurt. Made the fire she’d borrowed want to hide.
“Course, Captain?” her first mate called. The crew stood ready, but their faces showed the same unease Reyna felt. Some magics weren’t meant to stay buried.
A flash of silver caught her eye – movement in the clouds above. Not stars, not normal air traffic. Something else. Something that left trails of light like the scripts they’d seen in the temple.
Kira saw it too. Her sphere’s song changed pitch, harmonizing with a distant melody. “We’re not the only ones out here remembering.”
“Good,” Reyna said, feeling the fire respond to her call even as the water danced beneath their keel. “Because I’m pretty sure those ships didn’t come back just to say hello.”
The dark fleet moved with terrible purpose, ignoring the scattered Cinderhold ships entirely. They knew their real target.
“The temple showed us where to go,” Kira said, pulling out a second coral sphere. This one’s patterns matched the expanding scripts on their skin perfectly. “Where elements can meet safely. Where we might find others who remember.”
“You mean where we’ll definitely find others.” Reyna gestured at the sky where silver light wrote impossible paths through the stars. At the horizon where mountain peaks glowed with familiar patterns. “The elements are done being quiet. Done being apart.”
The nearest dark ship raised flags black as starless nights. Not a signal – a negation. A closing of possibilities.
Reyna smiled, sharp as breaking waves. “What do you say, water-worker? Ready to really scandalize some people?”
Kira’s answering grin held centuries of remembered dance steps. “I thought you’d never ask, fire-thief.”
Their magic rose together, fire and water braiding into forms that hadn’t been seen since giants walked and temples sang. Behind them, darkness gathered like a storm.
Above, the silver lights wheeled closer.
Ahead, mountains called with voices of stone.
And somewhere, at the point where all elements could touch…
Others were walking convergence paths of their own.
The real dance was about to begin.
And this time?
This time they’d remember every step.