The Raven Flame [The Crown Saga III] (First Draft)

Estranged Visions

My eyes quickly scanned the crystals surrounding us. Each one glowed in the same hue of orange, yet some glowed brighter than others. It wasn't specified by the size of the crystals, nor by the shape. It had to be something inside them, then.

"Do all the crystals speak to you?" I asked, not daring to reach out and touch one.

Kelda nodded. "Some speak louder than others, but I hear them all. Even now — like sand being pushed by the gentle wind, carrying the voices of the spirits speaking the tales of time. I was terrified the first time I heard it. But now—"

Kelda suddenly stopped in her tracks as her fingertips grazed the edges of a crooked crystal as if she saw something that had yet to leave her lips.

"Kel—"

"Come with me," Kelda said, turning around to grab my hands before she pulled me back from where we came. "I want to show you something."

"What about my friends? And your dad," I said, unable to free myself from her strong grasp.

Kelda didn't answer me but kept pulling me through tunnels whose crystals kept shifting in color. I couldn't tell how many tunnels we'd been through and how many times I'd seen the rainbow staring back at me through the clouded surfaces hiding the souls of sand before Kelda stopped.

Then a different light hit my skin.

It was warm and cast a shadow as none of the crystals did. It was familiar.

Just a few hours ago, that light had been the greatest blaze ever to brush Heliac's surface, threatening to scorch our delicate skin into charred, unrecognizable flesh. Now, however, it was gentle and merely teased my skin.

"My grandpa once foretold that a choice I would make in the future would change the world. He just forgot to specify that it was my world that would be changed and not the world."

We rounded the next corner, and a warm wind caressed my face from an opening in the cave wall. The sky was ablaze, with rosy hues and tints of yellow painting the blue canvas in the colors of the sunset.

The desert looked like a vast, undulating sea, the sand ripples seeming to be moving on their own as if it was the surface of the sun itself.

"I found this place after my dad and I had been fighting. He told me to think about my actions in my chamber, but when I came to the branching tunnels, where I usually turn right, a whisper urged me to turn left. That was the first time I heard the spirits of the sand talking to me, and my resolve to defy my father is what brought me here. It truly changed my world."

I took a deep breath, taking in the dry evening air.

I had only been in those tunnels for a few hours and was already missing the surface air. I couldn't imagine having lived down there for almost a thousand years and never set foot outside these walls.

"No one knows of this place, so I would appreciate it if you would let it stay between the two of us," Kelda said, leaning against the rock as she stared hopefully at the glowing horizon.

I nodded with a smile as I sat down for my feet to dangle freely over the edge. I could never take something as wonderful as this away from another soul.

"Thanks," she said as the wind grabbed hold of her flaming hair, revealing more of her crystalized ears. "But this is why I'm telling you not to worry about my grandpa's predictions. His senile mind is not to be fully trusted."

I pulled my legs closer, resting my chin on my knees. "What reason did your grandfather then have to bring us here?" I asked, my voice muffled by my pants. "Why not keep your existence a secret?"