The Curse of Saints

by Kate Dramis

The winter festival honored Saint Evie. Her sacrifice hundreds of years ago in the War tore open the veil between the realm and the Beyond, and called in the gods to abolish the Decachiré: the dangerous affinity work that had power-hungry Visya reaching to be gods by making their power limitless. Though Visya power before the War was raw—able to be molded into any of the nine affinities instead of bound to one—it was still contained; set in what was known as someone’s “well,” which limited the depth of how far the Visya could go before burning out entirely. But the Decachiré practitioners experimented with the limits of their wells, pushing further and further to gain more. They knew no bounds. It wasn’t enough to be blessed by the gods. They wanted to be gods. Some tried bestowing powers onto humans, believing there was no greater indication of godlike power than creating a Visya themselves. And using them to further their cause in the War.