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I stopped breathing. “Why can’t I—”
“Death is all around him,” the flames howled in my mind. “Death is all he is. He already walks with the forbidden shadows.”
The world around us blazed brighter, hotter, less friendly than before.
Solin shifted beside me. “Have you asked for your name? Why does the fire react as if you’ve offended it?”
I fought my building frustration all while the flames coiled and spat in my mind, “Your name and nothing else. Your name and then be gone.”
None of this made sense.
Why would the fire refuse to give me answers when it obviously knew who I was? Why did it cajole Solin into bringing me here if it felt I was unworthy of anything it had to share?
What a waste of time.
What a waste of fear and worry and...hope.
I felt its mockery growing thicker by the moment. I tasted its smugness that I continued to remain blind.
Needing to ask my questions to someone who might answer me, I narrowed my eyes on flame-cast Solin. “The words Quelis, Lokath, Rivoza, and Vetak...they’re not Firenese, are they?”
The fire pulsed with warning.
Solin frowned as a curtain of sparks dropped over us. “An odd question.”
“Can you answer it?”
My heart pounded, chasing a hunch that my past was tied up with those words. Words belonging to a language I shouldn’t know, yet did.
He studied me carefully. “No...those words are not Firenese. Nor are they from any of the many dialects that make up the four realms and its individual cities and clans.”
A shiver went down my back. “What language are they?”
He strode forward, his feet kicking up cinders, smoke feathering around his ankles. He pulled me with him. “A forgotten tongue that was said to be the language of our creators. Our ancestors. Just like those ancestors have died, so too has the language. It wasn’t scribed or studied. It faded with them, slowly disappearing from the minds of mortals until only four words remained.”
“The four elements.”
Solin nodded. “Only those four words are spoken and only because they were gifted. To speak each element is to invoke the power they embody, reminding us that we might live a mortal existence, but we still carry threads of our creators within us.”
“Are there any others?”
“Other words?”
“Elements.”
“What else would there be?” His eyebrows shot up. “Our existence is made up of the four. By being ruled by our chosen element, we live in kingdoms destined to favour those from that power.”
“So, you’ve never heard of a fifth—”
“Quiet,” the flames wooshed in my head. “You are not permitted to speak that word.”
“Semetzi?” I asked silently, daring to question the fire. “If it’s an element, why can’t it be spoken? The others are known.”
“The others don’t have the power of destruction.”
A tree suddenly shot from the soot-littered earth. It soared upward with a funnel of flames, shaking off its cloak of coal dust. Its branches caught fire, blazing with immortal light all while its trunk burned so hot it turned translucent.
Solin’s touch tightened, pulling me toward the incandescent tree. He looked into the crackling, spitting branches, his face painted by fire. Addressing the flames, he asked, “We have travelled deep into your heart for a name. Will you grant it?”
I sucked in a smoky breath.
Holding up our joined hands, Solin pressed our palms to the burning bark. “Tell her who she is, so she may be given the respect of a naming ceremony and learn her spirit guardian.”
“How can a spirit guardian be chosen for a mortal who isn’t mortal?” the fire cackled.
Solin frowned. “Your riddles are not needed today, Quelis. Only stark truth. Tell us who she is.”
Fire leapt from the tree and consumed us, licking angrily through our hair, dancing blindingly over our eyelashes. “You may have her name and only her name.”
Solin threw me a wide-eyed glance. “And if we wish to know everything—to reveal all that she is?”
“Then you will be cast out disappointed.”
“But we came to you to be guided. You requested I bring her to you—”
“We needed to know. Now we do.”
“You know who she is?” Solin asked.
“We do.” The blazing tree flickered and spat. “But you shall not.”
Solin glowered at the churning brimstone sky. “You’re saying all the incessant demands you made to meet her...all the visions you gave me of her leading our people to riches and joy—”
“Are real but also not real.”
“Tell us what secrets you’re hoarding,” Solin barked. “Tell me who she is, so I know what must be done.”
“Too much is at stake. We have not lied to you, Fire Reader. Those visions are true. But another path exists. A path she must never travel. Her name or nothing.”
I choked on teary frustration.
I’d begun to believe this trance would gift me back everything that I’d lost. That I’d finally know who I was. But it was yet another tease. Another impenetrable, tormenting wall.
