The sun had barely risen when Mina stumbled out of the inn, boots on the wrong feet, her satchel swinging wildly.
"Wait! You forgot your water" Kai called after her.
Too late. She slipped into a puddle, landing flat on her back with a loud splat. Kai winced and stifled a laugh as he walked over, offering a hand. "Well, that was graceful."
"I meant to do that," Mina muttered, grabbing his hand. "Testing gravity. Still works."
They set off down the forest path, leaving behind the sleepy village. Birds chirped in the misty air, and strange glittering insects buzzed lazily around their heads. Everything felt alive.
Midday, deep within a thicket of luminous trees, Kai suddenly staggered.
"What's wrong?" Mina rushed over.
"Something bit me." He lifted his sleeve. Two tiny puncture wounds were already darkening. A serpent slithered away into the brush.
"Oh no. Spirit-snake," !! Mina whispered.
"Lovely," Kai said, sinking to one knee.
Panic gripped her but she focused, placing her hands on the wound. A warm light glowed, then fizzled out. A flower bloomed instead at Kai's boot.
"Wrong target," Kai joked weakly.
"Shut up,"! Mina snapped, concentrating harder. This time, the light held. The poison began to retreat.
Kai blinked at her. "You're full of surprises."
"You're full of venom," she replied, helping him up.
By dusk, they arrived at the edge of a shimmering lake. Above it hovered a city building drifting on platforms of air, linked by woven bridges and clouds. Lanterns floated beside boats suspended midair. It was Caelumbre, the Floating Market.
They took a lift of wind up. Within moments, they were inside.
Mina's eyes sparkled. "I want to live here forever."
Kai grinned. "Don't trade your soul for a smoothie."
Everything was strange. One merchant sold bottled laughter. Another traded in shadows. A hooded woman tried to buy Kai's memory of his first kiss. Mina tried to help a child, accidentally kicked over a stand of floating fruit, and nearly got them banned.
They were saved by a tall, half-drunk man with a crooked smile: Jino, an ex-cartographer and marketplace rogue. "You broke it, you buy it, or you owe me a favor," he declared, slipping an arm around Mina's shoulders. "We'll take the favor," Kai said, pulling her gently back.
Jino needed something stolen from the Twilight Wing, a forbidden corridor of illusions. He promised answers in return.
The duo snuck through shimmering veils of magic, dodging eye-shaped orbs and traps that changed their appearance. Mina laughed when Kai's hair turned green. He didn't.
They retrieved the Compass of Whispers and Jino held his word.
"You want truth? Then visit the Oracle Tree. Through the Sky-Gate. Only the bold or stupid ever try."
"We're both,"! Mina beamed.
They followed the map to a floating arch of starlight.
Only when Kai and Mina joined hands focusing on trust, on shared breath, on belief did the gate shimmer and open, spilling them into a vast suspended garden.
At the center stood the Dualroot Oracle Tree, its trunk split into light and dark, twisting together like two souls forever bound.
Leaves shimmered like silver glass, branches pulsing with an inner light.
The tree's deep voice rumbled through the air, shaking the ground beneath their feet.
"You come seeking truth."
Kai stepped forward.
"We need to know why the magic stirs... why it calls to us."
The tree's branches trembled.
Light bloomed. Shadows deepened.
Suddenly
a burst of color.
A vision.
Kai saw:
A girl pale-haired, blue-eyed standing on a cliff, wind tearing at her cloak.
Behind her, a kingdom of silver spires and golden banners.
Her hands glowing, the ground trembling beneath her feet.
Mina saw: A ripple through time armies marching, stars falling, voices whispering her name.
A crown broken in two.
A shattered mirror reflecting a girl's face not Mina's, not Kai's, but someone they had never met.
The visions slammed into both of them at once.
They staggered, clutching their heads, gasping for breath.
The tree's voice softened, almost a whisper.
"The balance stirs.
A sleeper wakes.
And if you do not reach her first...
the storm will."
Kai's heart pounded.
"Who is she?"
The Oracle's branches quivered.
"She does not know her name.
But the world will soon call her Elsysia Valmont.
And all answers lie in Aurelis."
As the garden trembled, Mina grabbed Kai's sleeve.
"We have to go there."
Kai nodded slowly; eyes distant.
"Aurelis... it's the only place left. The last piece."
Mina's voice was tight.
"Why us? Why are we part of this?"
Kai met her gaze.
"Because fate doesn't care if we're ready."
The Oracle whispered one last time, fading into silence:
"Run fast, children of earth
For the storm hunts the sleeper...
and time runs thin."
The sky tore open above them. Lightning and swirling wind.
"The Storm is coming," the Tree roared. "And it will seek the Sleeper first."
The platform cracked.
"Run!" Kai yelled, grabbing Mina's hand.
They leapt across falling stone bridges, through a storm of feathers and stardust.
A final crash and then stillness.
They landed on a hilltop far below. Behind them, the floating garden disappeared into clouds.
Mina turned to Kai, chest heaving.
"I want pancakes," she said.
Kai burst out laughing.
They stared up at the swirling sky. They were only at the beginning.
And far away, Maria stirred in her sleep.