Luminara Whisperwind's Arc

Chapter 1 of 5

Luminara Whisperwind folded her wings tight and stepped behind the old wand-tree where the children of Wrathspire used to gather. She had come back to remember. She wanted Kael Stormweaver to love her, to choose her, wings and all. But first she had to admit she already knew him. The wand-tree still hummed faintly, its carved runes glowing soft at the tip. Children had once stacked stones around it and traded small treasures. Luminara had been one of those children. So had Kael. A small brown hand tugged her sleeve. A clever monkey blinked up at her, holding a tarnished heart-link chain in its paw. She knew the chain. She had dropped it here years ago, the day a quiet boy picked it up and pressed it into her palm without a word. The monkey chittered and pointed at the sky. A green dragon circled high above the parish spire, its wings sweeping wide shadows over the stones. The same shape that had startled them both as kids, sending them under the wand-tree together, hands touching the same chain. Luminara sank to her knees. She had been watching Kael for months and calling him a stranger. He was not a stranger. He had touched her hand before he ever touched a child's drawing of wings. She had hidden that memory from herself because remembering meant she owed him the truth. She closed her fingers around the chain and stood. The watching was over. She would find Kael and say the words she had practiced, because he had already met her once, and the girl he met had wings too.