Page 175 of Daughter of the Serpent

A prayer muttered from her lips.

Show me what I need to know. Grant me your wisdom. Your blessing. Your presence.

For a moment, there was nothing. Only the soft curl of wind through the trees and the steady beat of her heart.

Then - images began to stir behind her eyes.

First came the ocean. Vast. Wild. Waves rose high and thundered down with unrelenting force. A voice rose with them - feminine and haunting - singing in a language older than her blood, soft and mournful. The sound combed through her thoughts like unwelcome fingers, and then just as quickly, vanished.

Next, a snow - covered peak appeared, its jagged edges gleaming beneath a pale sun. The air felt biting, harsh, yet pure. At its summit stood a bow - aglow and suspended in pulsing white light, carved from white bone. Runes shimmered across its surface, carved deep and alive with power.

Then, the forest returned - but twisted, sickened, the trees blackened with rot. In the shadows, three golden chalices shimmered, suspended mid - air, glowing faintly.

Finally, a cave opened in the dark - a hollow mouth in the belly of the world. Inside, fire raged. Wild. Consuming. Devouring everything in its reach.

Her vision blurred, and then conjured from nothing, four luminous energies came to life before her - a quartet of colors, each pulsing with its own rhythm, its own power. Green, blue, red, and white - their light pulsed with rhythm, each beat like the heartbeat of the earth itself. They hovered before her like living spirits - aware, alive, eternal.

She stepped toward the green first.

The moment her fingers brushed it, the energy surged forward, green and alive. Roots sprang from her toes, spiraling deep into the dark soil beneath her, grounding her in a strength she didn’t know existed. Peace washed over her - gentle and soft. She was back in the glade, Axel’s laughter echoing through the trees. Then deeper still - shewasthe trees observing in the distance, the fox in her den, the wildcat stalking through the hills, shrouded in mist. The roaring bear. The gentle deer. The fish swimming beneath cold water.

Her soul merged with all that lived, all that breathed.

A voice rose in the stillness. Soft, steady, older than stone:

“I am Nature.”

Not hers, yet it vibrated in her bones like a song she’d always known.

She turned next to the blue light.

It shimmered like light dancing upon open water, ever - shifting, impossible to hold. She reached out - and instantly, the weight she’d carried for so long - the sorrow, the grief, the armor - melted away in a rush of cool water flooding her soul.

Shebecamethe water. The waves crashing against cliffs. A giggling brook weaving through sun - laden glades. A rivercarving through rock and stone. The salty tear that slipped down her own cheek.

“I am Water.”

The words came powerfully like a goddess herself, feminine - true. Promising of ease, of grace, of refreshment.

The blue dimmed, and the red began to glow - hot, pulsing, alive.

Flame surged the instant she touched it. Not with destruction, but with power. Fire filled her veins, awakened her bones, and ignited her womb. She felt purpose surge, desire thrum. Her heart pounded like a drum, wild and untamed. She was the torch blazing in ancestral halls, the flame on the altar beneath the gods feet, the firelight in the glade as she danced beneath the stars. The sheer thrill of Axel’s kiss.

“I am Fire.”

The voice blazed through her - fierce, defiant, untamed.

Last came the white light. It spiraled upward, weightless and free. As she touched it, she was lifted, her feet no longer bound. The sky wrapped around her and embraced her like a friend, its invisible fingers curling around her arm and pulling her upward. The wind weaved along her skin, like laughter, like the touch of a whispered caress. She became the air itself, invaluable but true - vast and unending.

She flew. She soared.

She was the eagle gliding through clouds, the breath in a newborn’s lungs, the scream of wind over the mountains. She was movement. Change. Freedom.

“I am Wind.”

One by one, the energies receded, their presence dimming until she was herself again. Her spirit settled, her feet grounded once more before the fire. Its flames flickered and danced, casting shadows along the bedrock walls, but the silence now felt fuller, resonant.

Sylvie remained still, her breath shallow, as if afraid to disturb the magic still thrumming in her veins. The vision lingered at the edges of her awareness, like the final notes of a song that refused to fade. Shetouched her chest, her heartbeat steady and strong beneath her palm.

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