Flames And Starlight

Chapter 47

In this ever-changing and seemingly impossible lifetime, there are few things that you can be certain are constant.

Space and time are two of them.

In a life surrounded by magic, many things could be considered unexplainable and are simply accepted that way. However, the unexplainable and magical do not conflict with those things that are constant, unceasing, and unchanging.

At least that's what I thought.

Because when I winnowed, all of my understanding about the constant, unceasing, and unchanging was completely turned upside down. All my time studying philosophers and their theories, as well as the hours and hours spent absorbed into centuries old books was entirely wasted. The knowledge gained and the firm opinions I had formed about such things were all proved wrong.

In that split second, from one end of the ballroom to another, my own existence was a testament to the claim that some constant, unceasing, and unchanging things most certainly were not always constant, they did cease, and they changed everything.

Time, for example, was a constant that never ceased. You could always count on the continual passing of time whether you liked it or not. Night would turn to day and day would turn to night in a cycle that always repeated and never paused. 15 minutes would always be 15 minutes and 2 hours would always be 2 hours. No matter what world you lived in.

Except for that moment when time froze. When I winnowed to Kyan, it was like time itself took a breath and held it. I called his name and the next moment I was in front of him, hearing my own voice's echo still reverberate through the vast and near empty ballroom. It happened in a blink. Yet time froze between that one moment and the next. Between one breath and the next.

Between.

Similar to what Kyan had explained when I questioned him on where his wings disappear to. He has told me that he doesn't truly know where they go, if the even go anywhere. Maybe that just ceased to exist for a moment until needed again.

If that was the case then that would mean winnowing was the willing control of your own existence and I didn't feel that made much sense. I'm powerful but not that powerful.

So maybe that "between" really did exist and winnowing was using the between as a bridge from one place to the next. Kind of like jumping between worlds. Portals act like doorways to different worlds in the same way the between acts like bridges within the same world.

Another constant that you, supposedly, could always count on was space. Obviously one might think that the basis of space has some blurred lines considering the fact that I was able to jump from one world to the next. But jumping within worlds was not something I had ever thought possible.

There are certain rules that can't be broken and randomly disappearing then appearing elsewhere was one of them. At least that's what I had thought. I was sorrowfully very wrong.

When I opened my eyes, from that blink that seemed to be frozen in time, instead of the expanse of the ballroom, I was looking down a sword at the deep green eyes of my father.

With half a thought, as time was still resuming at normal pace, I sent a roar of wind that knocked the sword from my fathers hand and sent it clattering against the marble flooring as it skidded out of his grasp. My mother and father stumbled backwards a step in response to the wind.

The next breath I took sent a wall of flame that separated my mate and I from any danger in a barrier that stretched from the floor to the ceiling 40 feet above us. In that same breath, I extended twin long swords in each hand. The long swords were also ablaze with that flame that wouldn't hurt me or Kyan, yet would turn any enemy to ash. Because I was in control of the flame. It did what I desired. And right now, I desired to protect Kyan regardless of who threatened him.