Excerpt
“Kiora, wake up. Where's Emane?”
She woke to find Drustan shaking her. “What are you talking about?” she muttered groggily, running the back of her arm across her eyes. The sun was just poking through the trees, sending harsh rays of light through the camp.
“Where’s Emane?” Drustan repeated.
She pushed up onto her elbows and looked around. Emane was nowhere in sight, his thread conspicuously absent. She jerked all the way up. “How long has he been gone?”
“I don’t know. I woke up and he wasn’t here. I can’t feel his thread—you need to try. You can feel farther than I can.”
Kiora nodded, ignoring the rising panic as she reached out for Emane’s thread. Nothing. Trying again, she pushed out as far as she could, searching for any sign of him. “I can’t feel him.” She huffed in frustration. Emane? she mentally called to him. Emane!
Rolling to her feet, she searched the camp. “His sword is gone.” Dread tightened her throat.
Drustan strode up next to her. “What was he thinking?” he spat, scanning the forest. “We have no idea what’s out there.”
They had to find him. What if he was hurt or—Kiora jolted. “A vision,” she said. “I can ask for a vision.” Providing Emane hadn’t been bubbled, it should work. Kiora settled down on her bedroll, asking for a vision of the moment Emane left camp. It came quickly as requested, and Kiora pushed it outwards to watch.
A furry, grey animal bumbled its way into camp. Finding Emane’s amulet it chirped happily, biting down and pulling at the cord before running off, dragging along the amulet. Emane chased after it. Kiora followed him through the forest, desperately trying to watch the surroundings. He wrestled the amulet free and then gasped at the blood-red amulet swinging in his hands.
“Oh no!” Kiora whispered.
“What is it?” Drustan asked. Waving him off, she kept watching.
Emane turned his head, scanning the area. Then the vision changed. It went fuzzy and dark, beginning to falter. She held tight to it, refusing to let go. Emane spun around, fighting with something she couldn’t see. He fell face first into the dirt, attacked by something— Kiora couldn’t tell what it was. Emane struggled and thrashed before
going limp. And then, even stranger, he was lifted off the ground and moved through the forest. He looked like a rag doll floating through the air, moving farther and farther away. The vision darkened with each second before finally fading into nothing.
Relaying the vision to Drustan, Kiora said, “I don't understand.”
Drustan ran his hand through his black hair, the red streak fanning backwards. “It sounds like something didn’t want you to see what happened.”
“How would it know I was looking?” Kiora objected.
“Not necessarily you—anyone.” Drustan paced back and forth now, as agitated as Kiora had ever seen him.” There is magic that can block visions.”
Kiora stilled, dread creeping in again. “Like the story Epona told me,” she recalled, “about the one who stole the lights.”
“Yes, though I doubt anything that powerful would be interested in Emane,” he answered, still marching back and forth, hands clasped behind his back. “The only other thing I know of with that ability is an Illusionist.”
