Young Writers Society

Alsari and I walked down the hall in silence. Quint had directed us to rooms where he said we could stay until we had reached a decision regarding joining the Academy.

“What do you think of the Eternian Academy?” I asked.

“I don’t trust them for a second,” Alsari replied.

“No?”

“There are lots of things that they do that are questionable, like kidnapping,” she said. “But that’s not it. If they’re telling the truth about being on all of the worlds, why are they so secretive? They keep too many secrets to just want to help.”

There was another stretch of silence before I broke it again. “Where are you from?” I asked. This was the question I’d been wanting to ask Alsari since I met her.

“What do you mean?” she said, although I couldn’t see how the question would confuse her.

“You’re a Flicker, and, no offense, but it’s pretty clear you’re not from Archora,” I said, looking at her too-pale skin and white hair. “So, where are you from?”

Alsari’s expression became bitter, and her eyes seemed to drill holes in the floor. “It doesn’t matter,” she said without looking up.

I should have left it at that, but I couldn’t. I was thrilled to find out what life on another world was like. “You must be from somewhere,” I pressed. “What’s it like?”

“No where,” Alsari insisted.

“But-”

“Just drop it,” Alsari spat.

I couldn’t help myself. The Stoneshaper was being too secretive, and I’d never been good at staying away from secrets. I extended my consciousness toward Alsari’s and found only pain. At the forefront of her mind was a memory too strong and full of pain to ignore.

The world was on fire. Blue flames towered to impossible heights, blotting out even the mountains.

People with white hair raced across the plains, fleeing from the fire. This had once been an ordered retreat. Now it was a panicked sprint.

“Go!” Alsari urged them. “Don’t wait for me!”

She tried to think of a way to delay the fire, even for a minute, but there was nothing. Nothing stopped the flames. They consumed water, stone, everything with equal ease.

It was too close. The fire must have been at least one thousand feet away, but Alsari could feel it searing her cheeks. Just feet away, dry grass combusted even over this distance. Alsari was forced to run, or her clothes would follow.

Alsari’s heart skipped a beat when she looked at her people. The flames had been advancing much faster than Alsari had predicted, and she as well as the rest of her village were standing in a circle of unburnt land, an island in a sea of fire.

“No…” she breathed, but it was too late. The fire surged forward, and every one of the villagers were consumed by the fire in an instant. No trace remained that they had ever been. They were just like the rest of Karadan, nothing more than cinders drifting in the wind.

It was odd how little emotion Alsari felt. Everyone she knew was gone. Her friends, here enemies, her family, her world. Nothing had been spared. Yet she felt...nothing. It must not have sunk in yet, but right now, Alsari had to save herself. For a moment, she considered letting go. Not running, just standing and letting the flames wash over her. She would be at peace at last.

No, she thought. No. There will be a time for death, but now isn’t it.

There was no choice. The beginnings of tears began to blur Alsari’s vision as she Flickered off the world. Her last glimpse of Karadan was a sea of steel blue flames and the cracks they created. These weren’t mere cracks in the stone, they were fractures in the universe. Karadan was breaking apart. An instant after she left her world, Alsari felt it vanish from the Myriad. An entire universe had been destroyed.

Alsari took her first breath of air on Archora.

I opened my eyes. I was in a passage of the Academy on Archora. I’d never felt a memory as vivid and riddled with pain as Alsari’s.

Alsari’s gaze pierced me like a dagger. There was no pretense of fury or accusation, just grim resignation. “What did you see?” I realized that for the first time, I was seeing the real Alsari. Her anger and frustration stemmed from the loss of her world, but they were just tools to prevent misery from setting in. Underneath Alsari’s mask of defiance, she felt sad and alone.

At first, I couldn’t put my feelings into words. I wanted to express my sorrow at what had happened. I had felt Alsari’s memory as if it were my own, and while I experienced a fraction of her grief, it was the greatest sorrow I had ever felt. I couldn’t even imagine what Alsari felt.

“I watched your world burn,” I said when I found my voice.”

Alsari’s nod was stiff, a tiny jerk of her head.

“What happened to it?” I wondered aloud. “What was that fire?”

“It’s called ghostfire.” Alsari’s voice was hoarse, brittle. “It hasn’t been seen in the Myriad for centuries. It destroys worlds. Nothing stops it. Water, rock, that just fuels it. It tears at the fabric of universes, it can’t be contained by anything. When Karadan… When Karadan fell, it took the ghostfire with it. It can’t cross into other universes.”

“Does the Eternian Academy know…”

“That I was born on a world that died?” Alsari’s tone had shifted, she was harsh and bitter. “I don’t know. They haven’t said anything, but they know more about me than I like.”

“I’m sorry,” I offered. “For what-”

“Thørn?” Alsari cut me off.

“Yes?”

“Do me a favor and don’t bring this up again.”