Faelan Wildwhisper's Arc

Chapter 1 of 5

Faelan knelt at the edge of the icy willow grove, listening for any voice she had not yet learned. Lanterns glowed softly in the frozen branches above her. She had spoken with wolves and foxes, but the silent ones still escaped her. She wanted every voice. She would not stop until she had them. A shimmer of light folded the air apart. A white cat stepped down from nothing, wings bright as scattered stars. It looked straight at Faelan and opened its mouth, but no sound came. Instead, a feeling pressed into her chest, warm and strange, like a sentence she could almost read. The cat lifted one paw and set a small crystal gazebo, no bigger than an apple, onto the snow. Tiny stars spun around its spires. Faelan reached for it. The cat blinked once, then dissolved into bright dust that drifted up through the lanterns. Faelan held the crystal in her palm. Its carvings shifted under her fingers, shapes she did not know. The message was here. She could not read it yet. But she would.