Vortex Visions (Air Awakens: Vortex Chronicles #1)

by Elise Kova

There were several, but they all contained carefully painted portraits of the same three people—her mother, father, and brother.

She knew better. The deal had been struck well before Vi was conceived. Before her parents were even wed. Had it not been for it, she may not even exist, as her father was originally betrothed to Sehra… But every time her birthday approached, Vi seemed subconsciously keen to avoid logic, and the doubts grew louder.

Even on her most bitter day of the year, Vi found a smile. Only a map from her brother could do that.

I was there waiting as she delivered you and your brother. I held you when you were a babe. And your mother is still one of my dearest friends in the world, confiding in me all the pains she feels at your absence.

When your mother was seventeen, she began to manifest and was Awoken to her powers with the help of your father. She has consulted me with her worries surrounding the fact that your powers have yet to Awaken. I have told her not to fret, and will pass on the same advice to you. I believe in you, Vi.

Now, I think you may need it more than me. Perhaps it will help you find your magic, as it helped rekindle your mother’s after her channel was forcibly closed. Your friend who cannot wait to meet and teach you, Fritznangle Chareem, Minister of Sorcerery

I believe in you, Vi… magic has an odd way of finding us when we need it most.

Daughter of Emperor Aldrik Solaris, regarded as one of the most powerful Firebearers alive. Granddaughter of the late Empress Fiera Ci’Dan Solaris, also regarded as one of the most powerful Firebearers in the world before her son. And now… all eyes were on Vi.

Vi had wanted magic. Begged for it. She’d anticipated flames like her uncle’s, like those of her forefathers. She’d never expected to see the future.

Windwalkers for air, Firebearers for fire, Groundbreakers for earth, and Waterrunners for water. Yet each of those four affinities could, sometimes, tap into a deeper, more mysterious magic called an affinity of the self. For Firebearers, that was future sight.

Silence can be control, her father had told her once.

It was the way of royalty; Romulin was the contingency plan for her, she was the contingency plan for her father, alongside her mother.

But that meant her mother stayed later, and Vi remembered every tangle and curl of her mother’s hair, the soft smell of fresh eucalyptus in the perfumes she wore.

You are possibly the singular thing that can unite the Empire, but you’ll need to play your cards right…

Everything feels as though it is happening so fast, yet I cannot wait. Somehow, I already know you feel the same, my twin. Until we meet, dear sister. Romulin

Only Vhalla Solaris could pen a letter that was equally beautiful and sorrowful. She clutched the letter to her chest, as if it could ease the dull ache there.

I promise you, I shall be there with your mother and brother when the time comes to collect you. We will be one family soon enough. With love, Your father

“Everywhere is paradise, just a different kind.”

Get up. She had to get up. She was the daughter of Aldrik and Vhalla Solaris—cut from a cloth that couldn’t be sheared so easily.

Her power was light itself, and all the possibilities of the world stretched within it—the code of the universe writ large.

Crown princesses did not have the luxury of clinging to past emotional distresses.

“Like nature versus nurture. You have been nurtured by Firebearers, so you and everyone else believes that is what you are. But that is not your nature. That is not your magic.”

“No, you’re not. You are like me, like Ellene. You can control an element, but it is merely a fraction of your true power.”

“You, Vi Solaris, are a Child of Yargen.”

Two commons can give birth to a sorcerer. Why not two who have no relationship to Yargen giving birth to a Child of Yargen?”

She told me of the Emperor’s impending downfall, the violation of the caverns, and the rise of the Mad King. She also told me that Vhalla Yarl must wed Aldrik Solaris, for they would give birth to two children. One would bear his forefather’s position in the capital of the Empire. But the other, the first to be born, would be a girl, a Child of Yargen—a daughter imperative for the future of our world.”

“I am too Northern to be Southern. I am too Southern to be Northern. Eastern to be Western. Western to be Eastern. I belong nowhere, and to no one,

“You belong nowhere, because you belong to the goddess herself. You are her chosen child, more than even I or Ellene, as you were hand-picked outside her lineage.”

“The Dark Isle is what the rest of the world calls us.”

“All right, let’s go back to the power of Yargen itself,” Vi suggested. Asking about the history of it was getting them nowhere. “It’s a magic not based on elements?” “Indeed. Think of it as all the elements combined—a pure form of power that can be manipulated by the will of those who wield it.”

That the goddess—Yargen—had bestowed magic on man through giving the words of divinity to mortals.

Halleth, to heal.

“Narro, acts of the mind.”

“Haath, communication.”

“When I used the word samasha, you were gifted the ability to understand Yargen’s gifts.”

“That’s what’s written.” Vi motioned to the page. “You can read these symbols?” “Yes…” Vi said cautiously.

The Dark Isle… that was how the rest of the world had labeled the Solaris Empire.

You must, instead, understand the glyphs beyond all doubt. Know them in your soul—more than your eyes and ears can tell you. Know how the words resonate with your will. Only then can you gain mastery of them.”

Intent was what this magic seemed to boil down to. Not unlike the elemental magicks of the Solaris Empire,

“Dark Isle. Yes, I get it. I’m very impressive for an uncultured swine,” Vi said hastily,

All she had wanted was a little bit of magic, and a little bit of control over it. She had wanted that magic to ensure that she could be reunited with her family without issue. Simple, clean, easy. Yet, somehow, she was facing a man with glowing green eyes, in the middle of ruins, discussing the end of the world.

“Because you will need the full power of Yargen as her champion when the end of the world comes.”

One of the reasons she needed to learn the magic of light from Sehra and Taavin was to keep that illusion alive—that she was a Firebearer like her predecessors. It gained her far too much favor in the West to allow the perception to slip.

The lines of fate are wound so tightly around you that they could strangle you if you’re not careful.”

If Vi had been a Windwalker like her mother, she could’ve caught Ellene before she even neared the ground. But she was useless as a Firebearer and as a Lightspinner.

“As far as many are concerned, there is another heir, nearly equal in birthright, only minutes behind you. Some would argue your brother was meant to sit the throne.”

How did she even begin to prioritize with all that was going on? Her mind wandered down a brief tangent, wondering if this was how her parents felt between caring for her and Romulin, and their Empire.

“Set it on fire with juth.”

“Perhaps the best way to ensure that you do not reap destruction accidentally is by learning how to destroy things intentionally?”

She was not making fire—she was making a channel of light that would become fire.