[Somewhere Between Day and Night—The Realm of Elemental Spirits]
The Realm of Elemental Spirits existed beyond the boundaries of the mortal world, in a place where time had neither beginning nor end.
At first glance, it resembled an ordinary forest. Ancient trees stretched toward the heavens beneath a canopy of emerald leaves, their twisted roots winding around moss-covered stones. Rivers shimmered beneath shafts of golden light, while flowers of countless colours bloomed along their banks. Silver-winged birds soared between the branches, their songs echoing through the vast wilderness.
Creatures wandered freely beneath the trees.
Some were no larger than rabbits, their translucent bodies shimmering like water. Others resembled foxes with flames dancing along their tails or tiny deer whose antlers sprouted fresh green leaves. Great bears carved from stone lumbered between the trees, while luminous serpents glided through the air as though the sky were another river.
Thousands of elemental spirits inhabited this realm, from the weakest creatures to the most ancient and powerful beings in existence.
Yet today, the forest had fallen silent.
The rivers had stopped flowing. The birds had ceased their songs, and even the smallest spirits had retreated beneath roots and stones as an invisible pressure descended upon the realm.
At its heart stood a colossal tree.
Its trunk divided into two enormous halves, intertwined so closely that neither could be separated from the other. One gleamed with brilliant golden bark, its leaves resembling fragments of sunlight. The other shone with pale, celestial radiance, its silver-white leaves glimmering like stars caught between dusk and dawn.
Its roots stretched beneath the entire realm, while its branches disappeared into a sky that had never known an ordinary sunrise.
The Twin Divine Tree.
The oldest living presence in the realm.
Before it stood a magnificent white leopard.
Veyra’s paws touched the earth without making a sound. His silver-white fur shimmered beneath the golden canopy, and the wind curled around his body as though recognizing its master.
He stopped before the enormous tree and lowered himself onto his forelegs.
"Why have you summoned me here?"
A deep growl answered from behind him.
"Not only you, everyone else has been summoned as well."
Veyra turned his head.
A magnificent crimson tiger emerged between two towering trees. Flames flickered along his striped coat, yet the surrounding leaves remained untouched. His eyes shone like molten gold, and every step carried the faint scent of smoke.
Azhar, the Guardian of Fire.
Unlike Veyra, who possessed the quiet authority of a storm held in check, Azhar radiated fierce, untamed majesty. His presence alone would have driven lesser spirits into hiding.
Yet even he appeared unsettled.
"I received the summons without explanation," Azhar said, glancing toward the Twin Divine Tree. "And when they summon us, ignoring them is rarely wise."
"Rarely?" Veyra scoffed. "You ignore their summons so often that we have to drag you here."
"I have never ignored a summons."
"You slept through one for three centuries."
"I was meditating."
"You were snoring."
Before Azhar could retaliate, the water in a nearby stream rose into the air.
It twisted into a spiralling column before bursting outward in a shower of sapphire droplets. From within the falling water emerged Nymara, the great blue wolf, whose translucent fur rippled like the surface of a deep ocean.
Her luminous eyes swept over the two guardians.
"Have you begun arguing already? We do not even know why we have been summoned."
"Veyra started it," Azhar replied.
"I asked one question."
"And I answered it."
"You answered nothing."
Nymara regarded them with profound disappointment before walking toward the tree.
The ground trembled.
Heavy footsteps echoed between the ancient trunks as Khar, the emerald stone lion, emerged from the forest. His immense body appeared sculpted from the oldest mountains, glowing green veins running through his rocky mane. Moss covered his shoulders, and tiny flowers bloomed in the cracks between his forelegs.
Above him descended Sola, the golden stag. His magnificent antlers shone like the rays of a rising sun, illuminating the forest with gentle radiance. Wherever his hooves touched the earth, withered grass briefly turned green.
A shadow moved between the trees.
Nazh, the enormous black serpent, appeared without warning. His scales swallowed the surrounding light, and his dark eyes held the cold stillness of a moonless night.
Last came Zaman.
The celestial crane descended from the star-filled sky, his pale silver-white wings spreading across the heavens. Stars flickered along his feathers, and every movement of his long neck seemed to disturb the rhythm of time itself.
The Seven Guardians had gathered.
Air. Fire. Water. Earth. Light. Shadow. Time.
Seven ancient powers that had watched over the elemental balance since the earliest age of creation.
They stood before the Twin Divine Tree, and for the first time in countless centuries, none knew why they had been summoned.
Khar was the first to break the silence.
"So, we have all been summoned. Does anyone know why?"
"No," Sola answered.
"Then perhaps we should ask."
Nazh’s tongue flickered between his fangs.
"Did you imagine we were summoned merely to admire your company?"
"Your company is hardly something to admire," Azhar muttered.
The black serpent turned his head slowly toward the crimson tiger.
"Would you care to repeat that?"
"Gladly."
"Enough."
Zaman’s voice was soft, yet the single word carried the weight of a thousand passing years.
The two guardians fell silent.
Zaman turned toward the Twin Divine Tree and bowed his celestial head.
"Ancient Ones, we have answered your summons. May we know why the Seven have been gathered?"
One by one, the others lowered their heads, and then the forest darkened.
The golden leaves trembled, though no wind stirred. A deep vibration travelled through the roots beneath their feet, spreading across the realm like the heartbeat of something sleeping beneath the foundations of creation.
The river rose from its banks. Clouds twisted into enormous spirals, and the Twin Divine Tree began to move.
Golden light poured from one half of its trunk, while silver-white radiance blazed from the other. The intertwined branches slowly separated, opening like the gates of a forgotten temple that had remained sealed since the beginning of time.
Two colossal heads emerged from within the tree.
One belonged to a magnificent dragon covered in golden scales, each gleaming like a fragment of the sun. Vast horns curved backward from his crown, and his eyes burned with the brilliance of creation.
The other dragon was white as the light before dawn. Silver patterns covered her enormous body, resembling ancient celestial inscriptions. Her eyes held the stillness of the stars, and her immense wings unfolded across the heavens, blotting out the sky.
The Twin Divine Dragons.
Azhuriel, the Golden Dragon of Creation.
Elyndra, the White Dragon of Eternity.
The first had witnessed the birth of the world. The second had watched over the passage of everything that followed.
Together, they had existed before the first elemental spirit, before the first human drew breath, and before the first stone of the Eshkaran Empire was laid.
The Seven Guardians bowed until their foreheads touched the earth.
"Great Primordials," they spoke in unison. "We stand before you."
Azhuriel lowered his enormous head.
"Rise, my children."
The guardians obeyed.
Elyndra’s pale gaze travelled across them before settling upon Veyra.
"You have all felt the change."
It was not a question.
Veyra lowered his head. "Yes, Great Mother."
"The child has returned to the mortal realm," Elyndra continued. "And the bond between her and the Seven has begun to stir."
Nymara’s sapphire eyes narrowed.
"Her power remains dormant. We have felt it, but she has not yet learned to reach for it consciously."
"Which is why you have been summoned," Azhuriel said, as his golden gaze swept across the guardians.
"You know Seyra. You have stood beside her, and you have already answered her distress. There is no need to question the identity of the child you have sworn to protect."
The forest seemed to grow colder.
"What you must understand," Elyndra continued, "is the nature of the core within her."
Khar stepped forward.
"She possesses no detectable Aether Core. The mortal instruments have found nothing within her. How can she command elemental power without one?"
Azhuriel lowered his enormous head.
"Because you have mistaken the absence of an ordinary core for the absence of power."
. . .
. . .
The Seven fell silent.
"The child possesses a Nexus Core."
The name passed through the forest like a tremor beneath the earth.
Even the Seven Guardians reacted. Zaman’s wings opened slightly. Sola’s golden light dimmed, while the emerald glow within Khar’s stone mane pulsed once.
Nazh raised his head.
"A Nexus Core..." he whispered. "I believed such a core existed only in the oldest records."
"It is rarer than any elemental affinity," Elyndra replied. "Across the long ages of existence, only a handful of children have been born bearing one. Most mortals will live and die without ever knowing such a core exists."
Nymara looked toward the distant mortal realm.
"Is that why the Aether crystal did not detect it?"
The air shuddered around the guardians as they nodded.
"A vessel holds what it receives; a nexus connects what would otherwise remain separate. Through this core, Seyra can establish a bond with every element because her Nexus Core can reach beyond the boundaries that divide them."
Veyra’s ears lowered.
"Then she was never without a core. The instruments simply could not recognize what she possesses."
"Precisely," Elyndra answered.
The mystery surrounding Seyra’s violet eyes and the Seven Guardians’ response began to take shape, but understanding brought no relief.
It brought fear.
Azhar stepped forward, flames stirring along his crimson body.
"If the Nexus Core connects her to the source of elemental power, why has it not awakened?"
"Because it is still developing," Azhuriel replied. "Seyra is young. Her core has not yet reached the stage at which it can establish stable contracts."
"And when it does?" Khar asked.
The Golden Dragon’s expression darkened.
"Then she will seek a bond with all seven of you."
Silence swept across the forest.
The Seven Guardians had expected the truth to be extraordinary, they had not expected this. Nazh’s black coils tightened around the ancient stone beneath him.
"All seven contracts?"
"Not necessarily at the same instant," Elyndra replied. "But the Nexus Core will not be satisfied with a single elemental bond. It was not formed to follow the limitations of ordinary mortals."
Zaman lowered his celestial head.
"And once the Seven contracts are established?"
Azhuriel and Elyndra exchanged a glance, a silent understanding passed between the Primordials.
"The connection will not end with the Seven," Elyndra said.
The guardians stared at her.
"It will extend to us."
For the first time in countless ages, the Seven Guardians had no words.
A direct contract with the Twin Divine Dragons stood beyond every known law of elemental magic. Even the greatest nobles of Eshkaran, with their powerful bloodlines and multiple spirit contracts, could never reach such a source.
Yet Seyra’s Nexus Core could because the core itself was a bridge between the elements and the power from which they originated.
Azhuriel’s voice thundered through the realm.
"But understand this: the Nexus Core is not yet stable. Its power is stirring faster than the child can comprehend. If she reaches the threshold of its awakening without establishing the necessary bonds, the connection may open before she is prepared to bear it."
Veyra stepped forward immediately.
"What will happen to her?"
Elyndra’s pale eyes softened, but her answer offered no comfort.
"The elements may answer her without restraint. Power will flow through a core that has not yet learned to regulate it. She may lose control—not because she wishes to destroy, but because she will not know how to stop what she has awakened."
Veyra’s claws pressed into the earth.
He remembered the force that had surrounded Seyra. The terrible, instinctive urge to destroy everything around her. At the time, he had believed she was frightened and overwhelmed by an unknown power.
Now he understood.
Her Nexus Core had begun to stir and if it awakened fully before she could form the necessary contracts, the consequences might reach far beyond one child.
"Then we must form the contracts with her as soon as possible," Azhar declared.
"No."
Azhuriel’s single word struck like thunder.
"Do not force the bonds. A contract formed through fear or coercion will not grant the child control over her power. The Nexus Core must recognise the Seven willingly, and Seyra must choose the bonds herself."
"Then what are we to do?" Nymara asked.
The Golden Dragon spread his enormous wings. Ancient symbols blazed across their undersides, illuminating the forest in gold.
"Find a way for her to form the seven contracts willingly," he commanded. "She must choose each bond herself, and she must do so before her Nexus Core awakens beyond her control."
The weight of the decree settled upon the Seven.
They could not force Seyra to accept them. They could not awaken her power by command. They could only prepare her, guide her, and ensure that when the moment came, she was strong enough to make her own choice.
Veyra bowed deeply.
"We shall find a way, Great Father."
One by one, the others followed.
"We shall protect her."
Elyndra watched them, her pale eyes reflecting seven different elemental lights.
"Protect her, but remember that she is not merely a power to be guarded. She is a child who must be allowed to grow. Do not let your fear of what she might become rob her of the chance to discover who she is."
The Seven lowered their heads.
The Twin Divine Tree began to close around the Primordials. Their enormous forms slowly withdrew into its intertwined trunk, and the golden and silver-white light faded beneath the branches.
The tree closed and the rivers began to flow again. Lesser spirits emerged from their hiding places, and the forest slowly returned to its familiar rhythm but the Seven Guardians remained beneath the ancient branches.
They now understood why the Aether crystal had failed to detect Seyra’s core. They understood why the elements answered her, and they understood why the Twin Divine Dragons had summoned them.
The Nexus Core had begun to awaken qnd the Seven Guardians had been given a task that even the gods could not fulfil on Seyra’s behalf.
They had to earn her trust before time ran out.