Elara couldn't sleep.
Not because of the chill in the air or the distant hoot of owls. Not even because Kaelin was once again under her roof, her voice echoing through familiar halls like a ghost from the past.
No Elara couldn't sleep because of the shimmer.
That strange flicker of light she'd seen in the forest had burrowed into her thoughts. It hadn't felt like a trick of the eye. It had felt alive. And more than that it had felt familiar. Like a memory tugging at the edge of her mind, just out of reach.
She threw off the covers and stood, barefoot against the cold wood floor. The moon spilled silver light across her room, and the wind murmured through the open window. She crossed to it slowly, heart beating a little faster.
The woods were silent. Still. But something pulled at her. Not with hands or words but with presence.
Something was waiting.
Elara didn't bother lighting a lantern. She moved through the manor like a shadow, her bare feet silent on the stone steps. She slipped past the guards still just boys in training and through the old garden gate that led to the back of the estate. The cold air kissed her skin, but she didn't shiver. Her body was alert, humming with something she didn't fully understand.
Magic.
She knew it now. Knew it in the way a bird knows when to migrate, or how the sea knows when to rise. The shimmer wasn't just a vision.
It was calling her.
The forest loomed ahead, dark and waiting. And though fear pricked her spine, she didn't hesitate.
She stepped between the trees.
At first, everything felt normal. Leaves underfoot. Crickets singing. The scent of moss and pine.
But the deeper she went, the more the world shifted.
The air grew heavy, thick with the scent of burned jasmine and wet stone. The trees leaned in, as if listening. And the silence… it was unnatural. Too perfect. As if the forest was holding its breath.
Then she saw it again.
The shimmer.
A flicker of silver and gold between two trees, like sunlight trapped in water. It moved slowly, pulsing.
Elara stepped closer, heart pounding.
The shimmer drifted backward, deeper into the woods. And without thinking, she followed.
The path grew narrow. Twisted.
And then suddenly it opened.
She stepped into a small clearing bathed in pale moonlight. In the center stood a stone circle, old and cracked, half-swallowed by roots. And hovering above it just inches off the ground was the shimmer.
It pulsed once, then split into three tendrils of light. They circled her like curious snakes.
Elara stood very still. Her breath came in soft clouds.
Then a whisper filled the air not with sound, but with thought.
"You are not meant to be here."
Elara's eyes widened. The shimmer… it was speaking.
Or thinking?
"I didn't mean to disturb anything," she whispered, unsure if the voice could even hear her words.
The shimmer paused.
Then, slowly, it moved closer to her chest right where her heartbeat lived.
And then it entered her.
Elara gasped. Not in pain, but in… recognition.
The shimmer wasn't a creature.
It was magic.
Her magic.
Locked. Hidden. Sleeping.
And now… waking.
Visions slammed into her like waves memories she had never seen.
A woman with silver eyes whispering in a forgotten tongue.
A fire burning in her veins, arms raised to the sky.
A crown made of moonlight and bone.
Elara stumbled back, grabbing a tree for balance as the shimmer faded into her body, vanishing entirely. She dropped to her knees, chest heaving.
"What… was that?" she whispered.
But no answer came.
Just the wind. The rustle of leaves. The weight of something ancient now sitting quietly in her bones.
By the time she returned to the manor, the sky was shifting from black to deep indigo. Birds had begun to stir, and a few lights glowed faintly in the lower halls.
She crept back into her room just as the bell in the east tower chimed for the hour before dawn.
She didn't sleep.
She just sat by the window, staring out into the gray light, her fingers tracing patterns in the frost on the glass.
Her mother had once told her stories of women in their family who heard whispers in the wind, who could feel storms before they came. She'd laughed them off as fairy tales.
But now… Elara knew better.
The Solari Gift was real.
And it had chosen her.
Later that morning, she moved through the halls like nothing had changed. But everything had.
When Kaelin found her in the music room, Elara was plucking at the old harp without thinking. Her fingers moved slowly, but her mind was far away.
Kaelin sat beside her. "You disappeared last night."
Elara didn't look up. "I needed air."
Kaelin watched her. "You've been… different since I arrived."
Elara gave a small smile, never breaking rhythm. "And you've been exactly the same."
That made Kaelin pause. For the briefest second, her smile dropped.
Then she stood. "I'll be in the garden if you change your mind."
She left without waiting for an answer.
Elara waited until the door closed before stopping her hands.
She stood slowly, crossing to the mirror by the wall. Her reflection stared back, but it felt like looking at someone else.
There was something in her eyes now.
A depth. A fire.
The shimmer had changed her.
And she didn't know what came next.
But she intended to find out.
That night, as the manor slept, Elara pulled out the old journal she'd hidden beneath her bed. She flipped past the childish drawings, past the silly love poems and dreams of court dances until she found a blank page.
She dipped her quill into ink and began to write.
What I saw in the forest:
A shimmer of light.
A voice that spoke without sound.
A memory that wasn't mine.
A magic that feels like it's been waiting.
She paused, tapping the quill against the paper.
What it means:
I don't know yet.
But it's real.
And I think… it's only the beginning.
She signed the page with a small mark a crescent moon.
Her family's symbol.
Her legacy.
Her burden.
She closed the book and slid it back under the bed.
Tomorrow, she would start looking for answers.
But tonight, for the first time in years, she didn't feel lost.
She felt chosen.
And whoever had set fire to her past… had no idea that she now held the spark.