INTRODUCTION
Guardian Eska signed the last of eight invitations and then waved his gloved hand over all eight sets. The cards hovered, defying wind and gravity both.
The letters slid into the crimson envelopes and then fell to an onyx desk thick with emerald vines.
Eska removed his ring, given to him during a Coronation long past. Golden wax coated the obsidian band, hiding Eska’s sigil a dragon, with wings outstretched, spewing fire. He pushed the ring down and sealed the first envelope.
Footsteps echoed in the hallways across the midsize cavity of moss-green aventurine floors and jade pillars. Though they echoed, Eska wouldn’t have needed the sound to sense the man’s presence.
He continued sealing the rest of the envelopes. “Is the ship ready, Luvan?”
“Conseleigh Iycel is readying it now. The air here is short. How long will it be?”
For Eska, the air in the room was fine. But his conseleigh were sure to be having difficulties. “We will have leave soon enough.”
“Thank you, my Guardian.”
While his conseleigh’s footsteps retreated, Eska stood from his chiseled and polished seat of shakti a rock of celadon color corded in black. He then waved his hand over the finished envelopes.
As he did so each rose and floated above him, following him through another hallway that led deeper into a cavernous floating isle to a place he had not been for one-hundred-and-fifty years.
Only he and his conseleigh knew of this place, but only he knew of the woman waiting for him at the path’s end.
