Lumia's Arc

Chapter 1 of 1

On the day after her eighteenth birthday, Lumia sat where she always sat, on the cold stone floor of a tower she had never left. She was born among the stars. She knew this the way she knew her own name, though no one had ever told her. A crescent moon rested on her white hair. Her pale eyes still remembered a fall from the sky, and a small child crying in the dark. Fourteen years of the same round wall had not erased that memory. She wanted the stars back. But the door was locked, and it had always been locked. The key turned. Lumia's stomach tightened. She knew that sound. Queen Morana stepped inside. She wore her dark gown and sheer cloak, her hair pinned neat. She was the only person Lumia had ever spoken to. She was also the woman who came each day to steal Lumia's light. "Give me your hands," Morana said. Her voice was flat, bored, cruel. Lumia had obeyed a thousand times. Each time, Morana pressed her palms to Lumia's and drew the glow from her skin. Each time, Morana walked out younger. Lumia walked nowhere. But today Morana's face was hungry in a new way. She gripped both of Lumia's wrists hard. "Eighteen now," Morana whispered. "Full strength. I will take all of it today. Every drop." Fear shot through Lumia. This was not the daily sip. This was the end of her. She tried to pull back. Morana held tight and began to pull, and the light poured out fast, more than ever before. Lumia felt herself fading. Then, from somewhere old and deep, anger rose. Moonlight fell through the narrow window and touched her hair. She reached for it the way a drowning girl reaches for air. The light did not leave her. It answered her. Lumia’s eyes glow white, she floated off the ground. The light flared white and burst outward from her hands. Morana screamed and flew back against the wall. The stolen glow ripped free of the queen and rushed home into Lumia's chest. For the first time in fourteen years, Lumia stood up straight and strong. Morana scrambled to the door. Her neat hair had come loose. Her hands shook. "What are you?" the queen gasped. "I'm going home," Lumia said. Morana tried to flee down the stairs but before she could Lumia summoned more moon magic and turned the Queen frail and old. She walked to the window. Below, the dark ground waited. She raised her hands and called the moonlight again. She asked the moon to help her in some way, and just as she did a creature of pure white, winged, with graceful horns and eyes like her own flew to Lumia. Lumia climbed onto its back. She did not know the world outside. She did not know a single friendly face in it. But the tower was behind her now. The creature spread its wings and leaped from the window into open sky.