Prologue: You.

I flew down the hallway. My bare feet sank into the lush crimson carpet.

My eyes flickered from picture to picture, not giving a second thought to the crowned young ladies framed in centuries-old royal oak on the amber-and-gold walls.

My mother always scolded me for leaving my room this late.

But I needed to move my feet; maybe there was something I could find. After all, she would always tell me about the beauty of the world.

I tilted my head at a sound coming from the throne room.

Mother and father were sleeping; maybe it could be Miss Taylor.

She never seemed to rest, though unlike me, she had to move her feet.

The room was pitch black when I entered, except for a single ray of light cutting through from behind the throne.

I remembered my father telling me to never go into that room.

But curiosity got the better of me.

A girl can only wonder why someone would place a room behind a throne.

I peeked my head in, only to see two men I didn't recognize.

One looked like a giant from the storybooks my mother would show me. But he wasn't scary at all.

He stood perfectly still, like a quiet tree in the middle of a windy day.

The other, just like in those books, reminded me of a cave-goblin who stumbled into the sun.

His body never stopped moving—an annoyingly fast rhythm on the polished Līthostēr.

It seemed like every few seconds, his long, dirt-stained fingers would dart to his collar, fiercely scratching his neck.

The big one knelt by the iron chest stuck in the floor.

Grunting, he pulled out a red stone that burned with a deep, fiery red so bright it looked warm to the touch.

The dark crimson center began to glow as he held it up to the metal box.

That glow looked familiar; I'd seen Miss Taylor do the same thing when lighting the stove.

The ruby she held was far less beautiful than the one in his hand.

And the fire that came after the glow was far, far brighter.

"Can you hurry? What if someone saw us enter?"

The twitchy man's voice was scratchy and laced with panic. His dirty fingers dug into his neck again.

"I can feel eyes looking at me. There's no way we are getting out of this! If we fight and I barely have any Līthostērs, and who's to-"

"Will you shut up so I can focus on getting this open?"

The tall man's voice was the complete opposite—calm, relaxed, and heavy.

But as the smaller man kept rambling, I noticed the once brilliant crimson light of the ruby begin to flicker. The intense heat radiating from it suddenly dipped, like a campfire hit with a gust of wind.

"Just... give me a minute; your annoying voice is itching the inside of my ear."

The giant muttered, his brow furrowing as he forced the stone to glow brightly once more. Sweat beaded on the giant's forehead, reflecting the deep Red Zoë as the flame licked against the ancient metal lock.

"We don't have time for quiet!"

The smaller man argued, his voice rising in panic. Terrified of being caught, his head snapped wildly from side to side, his frantic gaze scanning the edges of the room for any signs of danger.

The goblin-like man's eyes darted across the room to mine.

As if by second nature, my feet began to wander. But this time, it was in pure panic.

Rustle.

(No, no, no!)

The sudden rustle made both men snap their heads toward the sound.

The anxious one looked to be on the verge of tears. It even caused the confident giant to stumble backwards in surprise, dropping his focus as they both began searching in the darkness.

I didn't look back anymore.

I just ran.

Heavy, thundering footsteps followed.

Sprinting down the hallway, a sudden glint caught my eye.

Resting on a pedestal on the gold-and-amber wall was a specific Līthostēr.

For some unknown reason, it was calling out to me. It was a treasure my parents kept locked away under heavy guard, though they had never told me why.

Only that the legendary Opal Līthostēr is too much power for someone to handle.

(Why is it out here?)

My hands reached out to it.

The moment my fingers brushed against the surface, my mind flashed to Miss Taylor and the giant making Līthostērs glow.

Unknowingly, my body did the exact same thing.

As the power flooded the crystal, I remembered a story my mother used to tell me. A tale about a girl who chased fireworks. I remember it so vividly, as if I could see the girl in front of me every time she told me.

Once, there was a wandering girl who followed the roads wherever they led.

One summer night, she came upon a village celebrating beneath a dark sky.

BOOM!

A flower of red fire bloomed overhead.

BOOM!

Then blue. Then gold. Then violet.

BOOM!

The girl had never seen anything so beautiful.

She ran through the village, chasing each burst of light until the fireworks finally faded beyond the hills.

The girl smiled as she ran along.

From then on, whenever she heard a distant boom, she knew which way to wander.

It was bright.

The opal in my hand erupted, releasing Alké in a blinding explosion of fireworks.

Now, I finally understood why the girl would chase fireworks.

But as beautiful as it was, the blast was excessive. The destructive force tore outward, causing damage that went far beyond the palace walls. The shockwave surged across the borders, reaching throughout the entire kingdom.

Vibrant colors rained down from the ceiling like a shattered rainbow, illuminating the light radiating outward from my small hands.

It was so pretty.

But the noise didn't sound like fireworks. It sounded like the sky was tearing in half.

The terrifying roar of my own Zoë echoed across the plains outside, my power that had sleepwalked through my veins until tonight, happy to finally be free.

A hot, blinding white wall pushed me backward, slamming my head against the stone.

When the light was finally gone, the quiet was scary, replaced instantly by the horrible, agonizing smell of burning flesh as the heat of my Zoë melted through their clothes and skin.

My eyes turned to the two men who once chased me.

The two men were gone, just two dark things against the smoking ruins of the hallway.

The twitchy goblin-man didn't even have time to scream before the vibrant flames turned his scratching fingers to charred bone, while the giant crashed heavily into the marble, his massive frame blistering and bubbling into a mangled, blackened mass under the intense radiation of the light.

The horrific sight and the suffocating odor of charred meat hit me all at once, making my stomach violently heave.

GUGHH...

I dropped to my knees, vomiting right onto the ruined floor as my body buckled under the sheer terror of what I had just done.

A roaring wall of fire swept outward from my position, swallowing the gold-and-amber walls in a greedy, crackling inferno.

The palace groaned, collapsing in on itself as the massive shockwave tore through the courtyard gates and tore into the capital city below.

Looking past the smoldering debris, the entire kingdom was already alight.

Red, blue, gold, and violet fires painted the horizon, turning the distant towns and rolling hills into a massive, interconnected sea of burning color that illuminated the night sky for miles.

"Cecilia! Sweetie, where are you!"

A desperate voice cut through the roaring inferno, screaming my name.

Fueled by a sudden surge of adrenaline, I ran towards the sound, ignoring the intense exhaustion from using too much Alké for the very first time. I frantically tossed aside the smoldering debris and shattered stone blocking my path, desperate to find the source of the voice.

Who would have thought a child could possess such strength?

I finally broke through the smoke to see my mother.

She was limping heavily; her body terribly burned from the blast.

She stumbled over the smoldering ruins, the strength that once held me completely gone.

A thin trail of crimson dripped down her trembling jaw, stark against the dark soot covering her face.

It felt as if her fragile silhouette would dissolve into ash at any moment.

I wanted her to scold me.

Why wasn't she angry?

I'd been wandering again.

She was supposed to yell at me for leaving my room this late.

"C-Cecilia..." she whispered, her voice trembling but incredibly gentle.

She reached out, carefully wiping the soot and tears off my face, so gentle, making sure not to hurt me.

(You can't go.)

(Please.)

She looked at me, a tear streaming down her face.

I've never seen my mother cry. She always carried herself a certain way after all, even if we weren't in front of the court.

Despite the agonizing pain she was in, she desperately tried to calm me down.

She forced a soft, loving smile through her cracked lips, completely ignoring her own injuries just to soothe my trembling shoulders.

"Don't look at anything else, darling. Just look at me. Breathe... Mommy's right here. Everything is going to be okay. You're going to be just fine. Okay, sweetie, look at me."

Her touch grew heavy against my skin, her fingers sliding down my cheek as if she no longer had the strength to hold them up.

Before her body collapsed heavily against the ground with a dull thud, she locked her eyes onto mine one last time.

The warm, steady light in her eyes flickered, clouded by a sudden, distant emptiness.

Her strength quickly gave out.

"I love you, my little firework."

It was dark.

The light faded from the edges of my vision as my body began to give out, the exhaustion of Alké pulling me downward.

Before I fully drifted into unconsciousness, a pair of voices echoed through the smoke.

"Find the lock box in the throne room."

An older woman's voice commanded, tight with heavy, sharp grief as she looked over the ruins.

"Right away," a younger man answered swiftly.

Heavy footsteps rushed past me towards the debris of the throne room.

I heard a muffled gasp as the older woman knelt beside my mother, her breath catching in a broken whisper.

"Nora, my sweet girl... what happened to you?"

She wept softly, her trembling hand stroking my mother's cheek.

"You don't have to worry; she'll be safe with me."

For a moment, the heat of the surrounding fire seemed to dim against the weight of her sorrow.

A moment later, those same arms reached down, gently lifting my limp body from the ash.

My mind slipped away into the blackness.