Prologue

  Storms brooded over the Ascendant Realm’s infinite skyline. The air itself seemed alive, dark clouds boiling with silver veins of roiling lightning, winds twisting into spirals that bent whole horizons to its bidding. High above, anchored among the tempests, rose a palace of impossible craft, walls sculpted from storm-light, cloud-stuff and glass, each spire a conduit for thunder’s endless voice.

  Upon the stairways that climbed into the heavens, a figure ascended.

  Eripo, Goddess of Earth, strode step by step, her form shrouded in emerald and gold. With every footfall, the storm bent subtly around her, the stone beneath her sandals forming itself anew, steady where the winds howled in a vain attempt to tear it away. Her presence was weight, permanence; even the storm could not dislodge her.

  The Stormcitadel stirred with life as she approached. Feathered serpents coiled through the skies, their scales flashing with prismatic rain. Wind-sprites darted like sparks of light, trailing laughter that rang like windchimes to the ear. Mages robed in flowing silver and azure drifted across the currents, riding arcs of lightning as though the current of the storm were their steeds. Yet one by one, they slowed, bowed, and gave way to the Goddess. Earth had come, the ground rising to meet the sky.

  The staircase carried Eripo to the palace’s threshold. Twin gates of translucent crystal parted without a hand laid upon them, their edges humming with contained tempests. Within, the hall stretched vast and endless, built of thunderclouds frozen into form. Gusts raced through vaulted arches, scattering banners spun from rainbow mist.

  The Goddess of Earth climbed the last steps of the Stormlight staircase, a spiral of cloud and lightning that wound its way into near eternity. Every footfall pressed stone into being where none had existed, anchoring the ephemeral path with her weight, her permanence. Above, the metaphysical tower of the Stormcitadel reached past the horizons, crowned in thunder.

  There, Eripo found her, the Wind Goddess at its pinnacle.

  Irianna sat cross-legged upon a dais of condensed clouds, her form haloed in a storm too fierce for mortal skies. Bolts of lightning, endless and unceasing, speared her body with each breath, only to vanish into her skin like raindrops sinking into an ocean. Winds howled in a ceaseless torrent around her, a scream of air and pressure spiraling toward the heavens, boundless and violent, never-ending.

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  Eripo did not disturb her. She simply folded her hands before her and waited, her presence steady as mountains, unbowed by the shrieking gale.

  For gods, time was viewed differently. To a mortal, the storm’s roar that might have lasted weeks, perhaps months, but to the goddess it passed like no more than a breath. Patience was stone’s gift, and Eripo held it without strain.

  Eventually, the tempests pulled back. The pressure eased, the lightning quieted, and Irianna rose. The Wind Goddess uncoiled from her trance in a single smooth motion.

  She stood upon a dais of whirling air, her silver-white hair flowing in currents unseen, her mantle woven from clouds and crackling light. Her eyes shone as pale as the heart of a gale, and her smile was the edge of a storm before it broke. Around her circled great wings wrought of pure wind, unfurling and folding as though alive.

  “Eripo,” Irianna said, her voice rolling like distant thunder. “You walk the stair. Few do, unbidden.”

  Eripo inclined her head, unbothered by the lashing gales that swept around her. “Stone does not ask the sky for leave to endure it.”

  The storm goddess laughed softly, and the palace walls shivered with the sound. Her eyes glimmered like stormlight through rain as she regarded her sister. “You have not climbed this far merely to watch me breathe lightning. Speak, please.”

  Eripo gave the barest of a smile, her voice low and grounding, like soil heavy with water. “It is Beldia.”

  The name hung in the air like a tolling bell. Even the lingering winds seemed to pause, if only for an instant.

  Irianna’s lips curved faintly, though her eyes narrowed. “The Light shifts,” she murmured. “And when light bends, shadows move.” A roll of thunder accompanied her words, as if the storm itself echoed her thought.

  Eripo’s jaw tightened. “Change among us is rare. And when it comes, it is no gentle breeze—it cracks mountains, shatters rivers, and redraws the sky itself.”

  “Rare,” Irianna agreed, her hair streaming as the wind whipped anew around her. “But not impossible. Hopeful… perhaps. Terrifying, certainly. For when one god stirs, the others must decide whether to sleep… or awaken.”

  For a moment, silence stretched between them, filled only by the voice of cloud and crackling sky.

  Finally, Eripo stepped closer, the earthly stone-steady against the gale. “Then let us watch closely. I will hold the earth, as I always have. You—” her gaze sharpened, but her voice softened “—keep your ears sharp. Listen for whispers the wind may carry. I would know if shadows grow restless.”

  Irianna’s laugh was soft but dangerous, like a gust before a hurricane. She inclined her head ever so slightly.

  “Very well, sister. The wind hears all. And it delights in secrets.”