1. Naeris #2
Temple guards surged toward him instantly and were met by an army of rebels, who opened fire.
Screams erupted all around me. Accolades, initiates, and priests fled, while I stood.
Not frozen. Far from it. Adrenaline surged through me, as if even then I sensed that this was the moment my life would irrevocably change.
A change I had been praying for as long as I could remember.
Chaos detonated through the chamber.
The man walked straight for me, as little impressed with the chaos around me as I.
"You are a Prime Luminae.”
“You are a rebel.” I didn't question it. As sheltered as we were at the Temple, even we had heard of the rebels.
“Yes.”
“You shot a priest.”
“Yes.”
Another explosion rocked the chamber.
"You're not running."
"Should I?"
He sighed heavily. “We truly do not have time for this conversation.”
Two temple guards lunged toward me. He shot both without even looking. Their bodies hit the crystalline floor hard enough to crack the glowing glyphs beneath them.
Around us, the Ascension Chamber had descended fully into chaos.
Initiates screamed while temple guards exchanged blaster fire with rebels between collapsing crystal pillars.
Sacred banners burned. Smoke rolled through the golden light in dark waves.
The man looked at me like he was trying to decide whether I would become another problem.
Fair. I was often a problem.
Another explosion thundered through the chamber.
“Are you abducting me?”
He laughed through the chaos, "Do you want me to?"
A pulse cannon detonated somewhere deeper inside the Temple. Dust rained from the vaulted ceiling. The rebel pulled me hard against his side just as another group of temple guards surged toward us.
“Move!” someone shouted behind him.
His brethren formed around us instantly, disciplined despite the chaos. Not soldiers exactly. Survivors.
I could see it in the mismatched armor and exhausted eyes. These were people who fought because they had no other choice. The rebel fired twice more with terrifying accuracy before steering me toward the destroyed entrance hall.
“You should probably duck,” he informed me casually.
I opened my mouth to ask why. Then an explosion obliterated the upper balcony above us. I ducked in time. Barely. Crystal shards rained across the chamber while screams echoed behind us.
We ran through the ruined corridor at full speed. Temple alarms shrieked overhead now, bathing the white stone halls in flashing crimson light. More rebels flooded inward while terrified priests fled in the opposite direction.
For the first time in my life, the Temple looked vulnerable. Mortal. The realization sent a sharp thrill through me. The rebel glanced down at me suddenly.
“You’re enjoying this far too much.”
“I really hate this place.”
A startled laugh escaped him before he caught himself. We rounded another corridor hard enough that I nearly slammed into his chest. Outside.
Stars.
I stopped dead for half a heartbeat. The Temple of Ascension rose behind us in shimmering gold and white against the black desert cliffs, beautiful even while partially burning.
And waiting beyond the outer gates was a ship.
Not a polished Sythari vessel. This thing looked brutal.
Scarred metal plating. Heavy weapons mounted along the sides.
Engines glowed bright blue beneath the gathering dusk. A rebel ship.
Freedom.
The thought hit me so suddenly it almost hurt.
The stranger tugged me forward again. I should have been afraid of him.
But I wasn't. I couldn't help but feel that this was all part of a bigger plan and that I was finally going where I was always meant to be.
Not in a golden cage waiting to be bred, being forced to share my visions and predict an unpredictable future.
No, where I was going, I would be anything but sheltered.
I would receive scars like the unknown man next to me sported.
My expression would harden like his. I would see and do things I might or might not be proud of, but they would be my choices.
The Sythari told me I was honored. Revered.
That I was someone to be protected, cherished, and used to their liking.
They promised a long, pampered life for as long as I did as they bid and shared my visions with them.
Visions that should only belong to me. This man wasn't promising anything, but there was a glint in his eyes that I wanted more than anything else.
A glint that said he was proud and free, and that he only lived to make his own choices.
“You coming, Prime Luminae?” He asked.
"Naeris," I corrected.
He grinned. "Naeris. You coming?"
I resisted just enough to make him look at me. “What if I refuse?”
His silver-streaked brow lifted slightly. “You won’t.”
The certainty in his voice startled me.
“Very arrogant.”
“Very observant.”
Blaster fire erupted behind us. Temple guards were pouring out of the shattered entrance now. The rebel swore sharply. Then, without warning, he hauled me fully into his arms.
I yelped. “What are you?—”
“Saving time.” He laughed.
“You could have warned me!”
“You ask too many questions.”
He sprinted toward the ship while rebels covered our retreat with precise bursts of fire. The loading ramp slammed downward before we even reached it. Several armed males appeared in the opening. One of them froze when he saw me.
“Have you lost your mind?” he muttered. “A Prime Luminae?”
“She insisted,” the stranger snapped.
"His invitation was irrefusable." I countered.
We crossed the ramp just as blaster fire exploded against the ship hull behind us. The doors sealed instantly. The engines roared, and the only home I had ever known disappeared beneath us. I stared through the viewport as the golden towers shrank rapidly into the distance.
My entire life vanishing beneath clouds and smoke. No more ceremonies. No more sacred cages. No more pretending I belonged there. A strange mixture of exhilaration and terror twisted through me.
I should have been afraid. Instead, I smiled. Wildly. The rebel noticed immediately.
“That,” he informed me gravely, “is not a normal reaction to being kidnapped.”
I looked up at him. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to leave.”
He broke out into loud laughter. "You, Prime Luminae, will fit right in."
"Naeris," I snarled. I hadn't been trained in any kind of physical violence; if anything, I had been trained to avoid it. So when I boxed his shoulder, I hurt myself more than him, but the tone of my voice must have made up for it.
Because he tilted his head, laugh lines dancing around his eyes and lips as he acquiesced, "Naeris."
Later, I found out that he was Kael’Varyn, one of the high-up rebel leaders.
But right then, I was distracted by a nudge from the mysterious bond deep inside me. It pulsed once. Letting me know it was waiting.