The problem with stealing fire from an Empire fleet, Reyna decided, was that they tended to take it personally.
She stood in her ship’s crow’s nest, watching Cinderhold torches dance between their vessels like angry fireflies. They’d formed a blockade, cutting off her escape to open sea. Behind her lay Maralyd’s waters, and below them… something was definitely stirring.
The coral sphere in her pocket hummed louder with each passing wave.
“They’re signaling again, Captain,” her first mate called up. “The Commander demands we surrender the ‘stolen artifacts’ and submit to Imperial justice.”
Reyna snorted. “Stolen artifacts? That’s what they’re calling these now?” She pulled out the sphere, its patterns matching the ones rippling beneath her water-mark. “Interesting how they know about them at all. Almost like someone in Maralyd’s been talking.”
The sphere’s song changed pitch suddenly, harmonizing with something deep below. Reyna felt it in her bones – that moment when water and fire stopped fighting each other and started listening.
“Captain!” The lookout’s voice cracked. “Something’s coming up from below!”
The sea began to glow, pale blue light rising from the depths like a second dawn. Reyna’s water-mark blazed in response, and the coral sphere sang louder than ever.
A bubble of curved crystal broke the surface beside Reyna’s ship, much too gracefully to be natural. As water streamed off its surface, Reyna saw a woman inside, young but wearing the robes of a Master Artificer. Most striking were the spiral patterns covering her arms – patterns that matched the coral sphere exactly.
“That’s close enough!” The Cinderhold Commander’s voice boomed across the water. “Surrender the water-witch and the artifacts!”
The woman in the crystal bubble met Reyna’s eyes. Despite the chaos around them, she looked more fascinated than afraid. “Those are my spheres,” she said simply.
“Borrowed them, actually,” Reyna replied with a trader’s smile. “Was planning to return them. Eventually. You must be Kira.”
“And you must be the one teaching fire to dance.”
“Guilty.”
A blast of flame shot across their bows – a final warning from the Cinderhold ships. The water beneath them began to churn as Maralyd’s defenses activated, ancient magics rising to protect their own.
“We need to get out of here,” Kira said, her voice urgent. “All of this…” she gestured at the sphere, the ships, the churning water, “…it’s too soon. The elements are trying to tell us something, but not like this. Not through war.”
Reyna studied the young artificer’s face. Here was someone else who heard it – that impossible harmony hiding beneath the chaos. “Got any ideas? Because I’ve got an Empire fleet in front of us and what I’m guessing is a very angry Maralyd Council behind us.”
Kira’s birthmark pulsed with blue light, and she smiled. It was the kind of smile Reyna recognized – the smile of someone about to do something either brilliant or terrible. Possibly both.
“The coral spheres don’t just store water magic,” Kira said. “They remember it. Every current, every tide, every pattern the water’s ever danced to.” She pulled out another sphere, this one larger than Reyna’s. “Including some very old dances indeed.”
Understanding dawned on Reyna like a breaking wave. “You want to teach fire a new dance?”
“An old one, actually. The oldest.” Kira’s eyes gleamed. “Want to help?”
Another fireball lit up the night, closer this time. The Cinderhold ships were done with warnings.
Reyna laughed, wild and free as the sea itself. “Always wanted to lead a dance with the Empire. Crew!” she called down to her ship. “Prepare for something impossible!”
As Kira raised her sphere and Reyna felt the fire responding to her call, the elements themselves seemed to hold their breath.
The dance was about to begin.
And this time?
This time they had the right partners.