Grand Mother Sage's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

Grand Mother Sage was dying, and her flame had nowhere to go. She had guarded fire, water, earth, and air for four centuries. Now the elements pulled against each other, and she could feel her hold thinning. Before she failed for the last time, she had to pass her flame into a living mortal. That was the only way the balance survived her. She knelt at the old altar inside the temple where guardians trained. Stone flames rose from its top. Carved water curled beneath them. She spread torn pages across the altar floor. The bonding rite lived on these fragments, and half of them were missing. Sage read what she had. "Bind the flame to mortal flesh through the four witnesses," one line said. But the next page was gone. She did not know what the witnesses were. She lit her palm and held it over the stone. Fire answered fast. Water, as always, slipped from her the moment her eyes left it. A puddle spread across the floor and soaked the pages. She cursed and snatched them up too late. The ink ran. The rite blurred into gray smears. Now she had less than fragments. A cold light touched the wall behind her. Sage turned. A wolf cub stood in the temple doorway, small and black and white. A blue-green fire wrapped its body without burning. White wings folded against its back. It watched her with steady eyes, unafraid of her fire. "You should not be here," Sage said. The cub walked to the altar and pressed its nose to the ruined pages. Where its breath touched the soaked ink, the lines rose again, sharp and clear. Sage leaned close. The rite was whole now. And it named the witnesses. Four elemental dragons. One of fire, one of water, one of earth, one of air. The rite could not bind her flame to a mortal unless all four stood as witness. Only then would the flame take root in living flesh. Sage sat back. She had four centuries of memory, and she had never seen those dragons come when called. No guardian had. They answered nothing. The cub nudged her hand. Its aura flared brighter, then it turned toward the doorway and looked back at her. It wanted her to follow. Sage rose. Her knees ached. Her locs hung heavy with silver. She had the full rite at last, and it demanded the one thing she could not summon. But the cub waited, and something in its steady eyes told her it knew where the dragons were. She wrapped the dry pages in cloth and tucked them against her chest. "Lead, then," she said. The cub stepped into the light. Sage followed it out of the temple, toward the witnesses she had never found.