Elyra Vael's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

The torches reached the wreck. Elyra pushed the crystal sphere into the folds of her wrap and stepped back from the crack in the hull. Sand hissed under many feet. Her people gathered around the crescent-shaped vessel, its torn shell glowing faintly in the dark. She braced for their anger. She had broken the oldest law, and they had come to drag her home. Kael reached her first. He was lean and pale, with ice-blue eyes and silver hair swept behind his ears. All her life he had followed the elders' rules without question. Now he gripped her arm. "You crossed the boundary stone," he said. "You know what that means." His fingers dug in. She met his eyes and said nothing. She had no words that would help her. Then Elder Therandil came forward. He was taller than the rest, over eight feet, his white-blonde hair falling past his shoulders. The others fell silent when he passed. He did not look at Elyra. He looked at the ship. She waited for him to gasp, to recoil, to call the vessel a curse. He did none of these. He walked to the scorched hull and laid his long hand flat against the metal, the way she herself had done. His face stayed calm. Something moved behind his silver eyes. Not fear. Recognition. "You have seen this before," Elyra said. It was not a question. The elder turned. For a long moment he studied her face. "I hoped none of us ever would again," he said quietly. Kael's grip loosened. He stared at the old one. "Elder, what is this thing?" Therandil did not answer him. He stepped closer to Elyra. His voice dropped so only she could hear. "You touched what was inside. I can see it in you. The stranger gave you something." His eyes flicked to the folds of her wrap, where the sphere hid warm against her ribs. Elyra's chest tightened. She had thought the crystal her secret. She had thought the wreck a thing no one here had ever known. Both were false. "Then the law was never about the desert killing us," she said. "It was about keeping this hidden." The elder said nothing, and his silence was an answer. Around them the others waited, torches shaking. Kael looked from the elder to Elyra, and she saw the certainty drain from his face. His whole world had rested on the law. Now the oldest of them stood beside the forbidden thing and did not condemn it. "Take her back to the cavern," Therandil said at last. "Untouched. Say nothing to the others of what she carries." He turned again to the glowing hull. "She and I will speak. Alone." Elyra let Kael lead her across the dunes. She had come to the desert to escape her people's secrets. Instead she had walked straight into the largest one. And the elder knew she carried its heart.