Neovina Lantis's Arc

Chapter 4 of 6

The open water offered no walls. Neovina, Cinder, and Serpin drifted in the dark, exposed on every side. Her burned arm still ached. Cinder's flame threw a small red circle, but the black beyond it hid anything. "We can't stop here," she said. "He'll find us in the open." She needed a wall at her back and a way to think. She scanned the current for anything solid. Her glowing eyes caught it first. Smooth stones lay in a curved line along the seafloor. Marble, traced with gold and emerald lines that flowed like ivy. Three of them, half buried in silt. She swam down and brushed the sand away. The stones were cool and clean, laid by someone long ago. "A path," she said. "Someone built this." Serpin coiled close, red eyes on the dark behind them. "Paths lead to doors. Doors can be shut." He touched the largest stone. His silver tattoos brushed the gold lines, and both glowed brighter. "Old work. Older than me." For him, that meant very old. As the stones lit, the silt beside them stirred. A rolled sheet lifted from the seabed, held down by a smaller stone. Neovina pulled it free. It was a map, its edges worn soft, etched with tribal symbols. Green and gold marks glowed across the surface. Lines branched from a central sun toward small drawings—a beast, a cluster of huts, a marked crossing. She traced one line with her finger. It led away from the open water toward a shape like a sheltered cave. A new fire hissed at the map's edge. Cinder Ashwing dropped down beside them, wings folding tight. Neovina had never seen her before. The small fire spirit's skin cracked with light, her ember burning low. She hovered over the marble stones and glared. "You lit these. Fool." Her voice cut sharp with disgust, not volume. "Light calls things. In the dark and in the between." "Who are you?" Neovina asked, gripping the map. "Someone stuck where you don't want to go." Cinder Ashwing pointed a burning finger at the marked crossing. "That's a threshold. Cross it and you leave the open water. He can't follow into a closed place. Not fast." She looked at the male Cinder's steady flame, then away. "Move. My light's almost gone. Yours won't last either." Neovina made the choice. She pressed the map to her chest and pushed toward the sheltered cave the lines promised. Serpin carried her burned side. The male Cinder lit their way. The winged spirit trailed behind, her ember thinning. They slipped through a low arch of stone. The open water closed behind them. Inside, walls curved on every side, quiet and dark. Neovina spread the glowing map across a flat rock. Her breath steadied. She could think now. But the map showed more than shelter. One branching line ended at a symbol she knew—a splatter, like her tail, like the heirloom she hunted. She had found a wall. She had also found where to go next.