Page 80 of A Whisper of Cinders

I shaped the path the flames embrace,

A guiding spark, a vanished trace.

I do not speak, yet leave my mark,

A hidden glow within the dark.

Though turned to ash, I still remain,

A fire lost, yet not in vain.

I read it over once. Twice. And after the third time, the words become one golden splotch. I don’t need the paper, it has been engraved in my mind and I know I won’t forget it. “Thank you.”

As I finally turn around, I’m not surprised to see that no one is there. I laugh. “You’re fast for an old man.”

The rumbling laugh sounds again and it tickles something in my brain. It is the last thing I hear before I wake up to the morning sun caressing my face, just like it did in my dream.

I know I had to remember something, something that was said to me but it slips right between my fingertips.

Intense heat makes me burn, but it doesn’t come from a fireplace. No, this searing intensity is wrapped around me like a second skin. It comes from within me somehow. The faint smell of something charred clings to the air, but I’m sure they wouldn’t leave me in a room if it was on fire.

My eyes flutter open, but it takes a lot of energy to do so. Escaping into my dreamworld sounds much more pleasant now. I do have the feeling of smoke burning my throat, so there was a fire?

The room looks different as well, first off, it isn’t my room, I’m in the sanctum, but also…the colours are sharper and brighter, more intense and vivid, and everything looks more defined somehow. The air shimmers with small golden sparks and they drift closer to me, the more the panic rises.

The clothes I wear cling to my body, completely soaked. I lift the sheets, noticing I’m not wearing much at all, only a top and shorts. My hands look different as well. The scaring is still there, but glowing lines seem to run through them, as if there are actually embers burning underneath my skin.

What the hell is going on?

Panic seizes my chest and I scramble backward, bumping into the nightstand and nearly tumbling off the bed as I try to escape myself. My body doesn’t feel like my own and no matter how hard I shake my hands, the glow doesn’t fade, it only burns brighter, and the pulsing heat beneath my skin gets to a scolding hot temperature. I think I even see it evaporate, rising from my skin in small wisps of smoke.

The handle of my door goes down and I look up, like a deer caught in the headlights of a car. Althea’s tall figure enters, a concerned expression on her face.

She flicks her hand and some of the heat cools down, with it the panic that has me in its grip.

“Better?”

“What is going on?”

She doesn’t answer my question, only grabs a cloth and a basin of water and walks over to me, sitting down on the chair next to me. She gently pushes against my shoulder, ushering for me to lie down, and starts dapping away the sweat. “It is not my task to explain it to you, but I promise it will become clear very soon. You are physically alright.”

“Alright? I’m like a glow stick?! I already had everyone’s attention without the glowing skin, but now? They will mock me even more.”

She smiles gently at me, although I don’t understand why she doesn’t run away or shrinks back from my touch. “I understand this is all very confusing, but no one will look at you like that. On the contrary, they might see you with reverence and awe.”

Don’t see in a million years how that would be possible, but she seems certain of her case. “What is happening to me?”

She rinses the cloth and does the same process on my arms this time. “What do you remember?”

“Heat, Scorching heat. The ground beneath my hands that trembles and…Amira!”

There were whispers outside my door that suddenly fall silent. A knock follows shortly after. The door opens and the figure that enters is definitely female, but she must be a creation of my imagination. Her beauty is overwhelming, her features fine and delicate, her eyes glow and there is a white aura surrounding her that seems to pulse like a heartbeat.

I blink and the woman is replaced by Mrs Delalune. I desperately look back at Althea. “I don’t know what kind of sedatives or drugs you gave me, but my mind isn’t working as it should. I’m seeing things that don’t make sense.”

The extreme migraine attack I had yesterday has lifted, but I do feel a slight pounding coming up. I rub my eyes and open them to see Althea rising from the chair and leaving the room, Mrs Delalune takes her place instead.

“What if I told you all of it is real?”