Chapter 7: Danira (Part 1).

  ****

  Solmaris, Month: 94, Year: 226.

  The grass was still wet with dew, but Danira’s boots were heavy with mud.

  She ran just behind Jared, the sun barely cresting the horizon, its pale light not yet strong enough to burn away the morning chill. Her breath came in sharp bursts, arms pumping, legs aching. Sweat soaked her shirt, the once-crisp fabric now clinging to her back.

  Behind her, Elise struggled up from a shallow ditch, elbows streaked with dirt, her breath uneven.

  They had been running, jumping, and crawling, for over an hour now.

  This was my idea, Danira reminded herself, as she forced herself to keep up. I asked him to train us.

  Finally, Jared slowed, then came to a stop in a clearing ringed by crooked trees and tangled brushes. The grass here grew tall and wild, brushing against Danira’s knees. Jared stretched his shoulders and breathed in deeply.

  “All right,” he said. “Warmup’s over.”

  Danira straightened, panting, arms limp at her sides.

  Jared cracked his neck, giving them a sidelong glance. “Now comes the fun part.”

  He walked over to a leather sack lying in the grass and kicked it open. Wooden weapons spilled out: swords, spears, daggers, axes, staves, and even a curved blade that looked more ceremonial than practical.

  “I think it’s time you picked a weapon.”

  Danira’s eyes lit up. She stepped forward, but paused when she noticed Elise hadn’t moved.

  Elise stood frozen, her gaze flicking between the weapons and the ground. Her hands fidgeted at her sides, lips pressed thin.

  Danira turned to her and signed gently: Don’t pay attention to your siblings. They’re not here. They don’t get to tell you what you can’t do.

  Jared watched the silent exchange, his brow raised. “Something wrong?”

  Danira exhaled, speaking aloud. “Her siblings say relying on weapons or armor is dishonorable. That it’s for brutes, not people of their status.”

  Jared let out a sharp, humorless laugh. “Sure sounds like nobility.”

  He stooped and picked up a wooden spear, tested its balance, then flicked it toward Elise with a casual toss.

  She flinched, fumbling the catch. Her fingers scrambled along the smooth shaft.

  Jared crossed his arms. “I’ve fought beside nobles before. They say their blessings from Solenya are more than enough to give them power and keep them safe. But most of us don′t get the luck of being born with as many Sun Marks as they do.”

  Elise looked down at the spear. It was heavier than it looked, not unwieldy, just unfamiliar. She shifted her grip, uncertain, and glanced at Danira.

  “Brutes or not,” Jared said. “It’s not dishonorable to use every advantage you can find.”

  He turned back to the sack and tipped it further. More weapons spilled onto the grass with a chorus of clatters.

  Danira stepped closer, eyeing the spread. “So... do we just pick one?”

  Jared shook his head. “Not yet. You’ll pick the one that fits you. Based on the magic and skills you already have.”

  He turned toward her, arms crossed. “How many Sun Marks do you have?”

  Danira hesitated, then tugged her collar down, revealing the golden sigil etched on her left shoulder. It shimmered faintly, pulsing with quiet, rhythmic energy.

  “I’m a peasant. I only have the one I showed you before,” she said softly, almost embarrassed.

  Jared squinted. “What’s it do?”

  Danira jogged over to her pack and dropped to her knees, rummaging. “Hold on. I’ll show you.”

  She returned with a thick, leather-bound notebook stuffed with loose, fluttering pages. Some were torn, others stained with ink and leaf-juice, but each was covered in cramped handwriting, meticulous sketches, and carefully annotated charts.

  “Since no one else in my family has a Sunmark like this one,” she said, flipping through, “I’ve been testing it. Trying to figure out how it works.”

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  Jared took the notebook and scanned a few pages. His brow furrowed at the graphs, trial logs.

  “Oh! I see. I have an adoptive daughter too.”

  Danira blinked, somewhat offended, but said nothing.

  Jared winced inwardly and changed the subject. “What did you find?” His gaze returned to the notebook.

  Danira took a breath. “Okay. Watch this.”

  She pulled out a broad green-gold leaf veined with silver, almost translucent like the wing of a dragonfly. She closed her eyes, inhaled deeply, then exhaled in a slow stream.

  From her lips spilled a soft white flame, fluid and silent, like light made liquid. It curled gently around the leaf, clinging to its surface. The flame didn’t crackle, or didn’t roar, nor scorch.

  “This is from a kyrralis vine,” she said, placing the leaf on the ground. “It stores ambient magic to survive the long nights.”

  Jared leaned closer, fascinated. Elise crept up beside him, eyes wide.

  “It doesn’t burn,” Danira said, “and it doesn’t consume wood or flesh or anything physical. But it does consume magic.”

  The veins in the leaf began to dim. The silver dulled, turning ashen as the white flame rippled across it.

  Danira scooped up some dew from the grass and poured it over the leaf. The flames hissed slightly but held their shape. They danced across the leaf’s surface, refusing to go out.

  “It doesn’t drown,” she said. “I’ve submerged it, frozen it, even tried sealing it in a vacuum jar. The flame only dies when the magic runs out.”

  Jared scratched his chin. “Fairyfire.”

  Danira’s eyes lit up. “You’ve seen it?”

  “No,” he admitted, “but I’ve heard stories. Some people in the west are said to have that kind of magic.”

  He handed the notebook back, visibly impressed.

  “What’s your range? Cooldown? Consumption?” he asked, as if already expecting she knew the answers.

  Danira nodded. “Range is about a hand’s length past my fingertips. Cooldown’s two minutes, and I haven’t felt it drain me at all. I’ve kept using it over and over for hours. No fatigue.”

  Jared tilted his head. “Ever use it on a person?”

  She stepped back and shook her head. “No. Not even on living animals.”

  Jared rubbed his chin again, eyeing her thoughtfully. To Danira′s surprise, he touched the vine, still covered with flickering white fire.”

  Danira blinked. “Wait! What are you doing?”

  “Come on,” he said, almost grinning. “What if you're in danger one day and don't know if you can rely on that power? Better to find out now than in a fight.”

  “But what if something goes wrong?” she protested. “What if it actually hurts you?”

  Jared shrugged. “Then I guess I’ll find out the hard way. Besides,” he flashed a crooked grin. “I’m curious.”

  The stream of white fire extended from his fingertip, up through his arm and curled around Jared’s chest. The moment it touched the area of his sternum, it bloomed, racing across his body in a wave of pale flame, turning him into a silhouette of flickering light.

  Elise gasped and signed something rapid and alarmed, so frantic even Jared understood the gist.

  He immediately dropped to the ground and began rolling through the dew-soaked grass. The flames clung to him stubbornly.

  “Does it hurt?” Danira asked, wide-eyed.

  “Not really,” Jared said from the ground. “Feels like... a warm summer day. Bit too warm. Like laying on the beach.”

  Seconds passed. The fire showed no sign of fading.

  “I think it’s draining me,” he said, voice tight. “Slowly. My magic’s... thinning. And there’s this weird feeling crawling up my spine. Not pain. Just... wrong. Like I’m forgetting something important.”

  Still wreathed in fire, he pushed himself up and stalked toward the weapon pile as if the flames weren’t there.

  With a wooden weapon in hand, he dashed towards Danira in a heartbeat. She stumbled back, the wooden blade already at her neck before she had time to react. She looked up towards him, her heart racing as if she was running again.

  “I suppose it’s good for weakening your opponent’s magic,” he added. He lowered the wooden weapon he held on one hand, while extending the other one towards her to help her stand. “But you definitely can’t rely on it to finish them quickly. You’ll have to stay mobile, wear them down, force them to burn through their magic, even after you’ve landed the hit.”

  Danira saw his hand, still in flames and decided to not take it. She stood up on her own. “That was very rude of you,” Danira protested as she brushed off the dew and strands of grass from her clothes. “Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to frighten you,” he said, with a somewhat amused tone as he dug back into the pile of wooden weapons. He tossed her a slender blade. “Try this.”

  Danira caught it on instinct, but dropped it immediately as she feared her white flames might have clung to it. They hadn't.

  “It’s called a rapier,” Jared said, as he signaled her to pick it from the grass. “Light, fast, good for staying mobile. If that fire only works at close range, you’ll want to strike and slip away before they get a chance to strike you back.”

  The flames still shimmered faintly across his shoulders as he turned to Elise, raising an eyebrow.

  “Well? You picking something, or just going to keep staring while I cook?”

  He waited a beat, then continued, as if not expecting an answer. “I’m almost afraid to ask... but what do your Sun Marks do?”

  Elise glanced down, silver eyes shadowed by hesitation. Her hands fidgeted at her waist, fingers curling into the hem of her tunic.

  Danira stepped in, voice gentle but honest. “Actually… despite having many Sun Marks, Elise has never been able to activate any of them.”

  Jared blinked. “Huh.”

  He scratched the back of his head, visibly caught off guard. “I’ve seen weak marks. Dormant ones, too. But none of them working?” He shook his head slowly. “That’s a first.”

  Elise turned away, cheeks tinged with color, looking downward as if she expected to be scolded.

  Jared simply turned, then walked over and picked up the wooden spear he’d tossed her earlier. Without a word, he threw it back into her hands.

  “Well,” he said, tone shifting to something calmer, “then this was the right choice.”

  He stepped back, gesturing to the spear. “Long reach, light weight, and adaptable in tight spaces. The best weapon for someone without Sun Marks, or in this case, for someone whose magic hasn’t woken up yet.”

  Elise gripped the shaft tightly. She swallowed as she looked at him, as if expecting something other than a calm change of strategy.

  “It’s not weakness,” Jared added. “Just a different method. That’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

  Elise nodded, just once. And this time, when she held the spear, she held it with intention.

  Jared gave a satisfied grunt. “All right. You’ve got your weapons. Now let’s see if you can actually hit something.”

  Elise hesitated, then started signing, her hands moving quickly.

  Danira read it and translated. “Elise says… maybe we should wait until your fire goes out before trying anything else.”

  Jared blinked, then looked down at his still-flaming arm. “Fair.”

  Jared started packing the training equipment: “Sig’s probably expecting you at the market soon anyway. We’ll call it for the day.”

  The three of them began the walk back toward the port. The trees overhead cast shifting shadows as the sun continued its slow rise.

  Jared glanced at his hand, still wreathed in that soft white flame. He smirked. “I bet it spreads if I touch you gals.”

  Danira and Elise immediately stepped away in sync.

  He burst out laughing. “Relax! I'm Joking.”

  As if responding to the joke, the flames finally flickered and faded from his skin, leaving no mark behind.

  They stopped near a flat stone by the water’s edge, and Jared crouched down, planting both hands on his knees. He closed his eyes, reaching inward.

  Nothing.

  He tried again, summoning Solenya′s light, the internal thread of focus he’d relied on for years.

  Still nothing.

  “That’s... weird,” he muttered. “I’ve never had my magic stall like this before.”

  He looked up at Danira, brow furrowed. “I wonder how long it'll take to recover.”

  Danira crossed her arms. “If ever.”

  Jared laughed. “Don’t joke like that.”

  She grinned. “You’re the one who touched the flame. Don’t blame me if your magic doesn’t come back.”

  Elise signed something quickly.

  Danira laughed. “She said that if you can joke around and laugh, you're fine.”

  Jared stood, brushing off his hands. “Damn right I am. I’ll be in top shape by tomorrow. Just watch.”

  They kept walking, but a faint trace of concern lingered in Jared’s eyes, even as he forced a confident smile.

  Elise's Journey.

  Chapter 7: Danira (Part 2).

  Thank you very much for taking the time to read my story.