Starlight of a Moonbeam

Freedom of Flight, Seven - Age 17 (Elena POV)

"Promise. I'll be there."

But you're not, Fenrys. You're not here.

***

He'd promised me. He'd promised me he would be here.

I start to feel my emotions bubbling, and threatening to boil-over, and the temperature has increased considerably within the last thirty seconds.

"Calm down now!"

I hear my father's voice barking at me, from the time we were out in Adarlan and I saw something in a dark alleyway that no eight year old should have seen. I was frantic and started to lose my hold on my fire. The grey-water that dwelled in the cracks between the cobblestones started to steam and evaporate. The silver chains that fastened my cloak began to glow red. And if it weren't for my father's being there, I would have likely caused shocking damage.

"It is there to guard you, to shield you, and to protect you. But remember what you are using it for, and what the consequences might be."

"That fire is yours, Elena."

"Some things need to be burned down to the ground. Only then can a new leaf grow from the ashes."

"Fire is impulsive and wild. If you let it run free, it will spread to the ends of the land. A single candle might not look like it can do much harm but set it to a haystack, and the flames with scorch the sky. But fire is beautiful and healing. Fire is the sun that heats our world and so many others. Fire is the light in our dark homes at night."

"You cannot fight flames with flames. You will only add to their conquest. You cannot fight fire with emotion, for it will use it to its advantage. The way to keep control of fire is to outsmart it."

"Fire while strong has two main goals: to grow larger, and to eat through all in its path. What you need to do is reshape the path. Create a goal of your own and push it down your way. Sing to the flames and direct them to your advantage. Feel the pulse of the embers in your heart and steady them to your tempo. And learn how to close off the air, and say goodnight."

Lesson after lesson with both my father and mother come roaring back at me, and I follow their instructions, keeping the flames from leaping out.

Think Elena.

-"Stygian spiders have the ability to take abstract things from those who bargain with them. They can magically acquire things such as beauty, age, and dreams." -

Thinking back to the books I've read on the valg beasts I try to recall every detail that might help me survive this.

- "Both factions of stygian spiders possess a venom that is stored in their fangs. Stygian spiders are highly intelligent and are capable of human speech. They engage in business with those who seek them out and are experienced hagglers." -

I'd never learned much about the differences between the Stygian Spiders and the Kharankui. I knew that while the Kharankui had stayed here where the dark Valg Queen Maeve had originally passed through, to guard the gate, the Stygian Spiders had gone to the Ruhnn Mountains and become traders of their spidersilk to the dismay and dishonor of the Kharankui who did not weave the silk. I learned that both had joined The Battle of Orynth to aid their queen and that some had indeed become hosts for the Vlag princesses. And I know that both are extremely... deadly.

But if the Kharankui never wove the invaluable spidersilk then why was their greatest stash hidden away here? And why hadn't the store been found before? Or perhaps it was that no one lived to tell the tale.