CORRUPTED FILE [Lumina Chronicles Past Drafts]

Level Nineteen

*MAGGIE's PoV*

Honestly, it was a miracle I didn't fall off the roof. My heart was pounding out of my chest, and my cheeks may as well have been on fire. I rested my head against Kindle's shoulder, breathing slowly, trying not to move an inch.

I was sure that if I so much as twitched a muscle, it would break whatever sort of magical haze hovered over us. So I stayed still. I memorized how the sky looked at that exact moment, the suddenly frigid early winter air—it was December now, wasn't it?—the intense warmth where Kindle's arm wrapped around me. His familiar smoke and spices scent, made stronger by our proximity.

But then Kindle coughed, and straightened, and I felt his fingers on my arm tense. He was rethinking his action, probably getting embarrassed.

To spare him, I popped up straight and smiled. "Oh! I finished the painting, do you wanna see?"

Without waiting for an answer, I turned and swung my legs back onto the roof. I hurried to my easel and took down the canvas, keeping the painted side faced away from Kindle.

He seemed a bit more relaxed when he stood and walked over. He nodded. "Alright, lets see it."

I glanced down at the painting once more, then took a deep breath and flipped it toward him. I wrinkled my nose. "Be kind."

Kindle blinked. "I—wow, Blondie. This is really good."

My face heated. "Oh no, that's almost worse than you making fun of me."

Kindle shook his head. "Sorry, there's not really much to make fun of here. I'm trying, trust me." Then he smiled. "Ah, wait, here's something—you sure put a lot of detail in my eyes, hm?"

I set the painting back on the easel and smiled stupidly at the ground. "Your eyes are weird. But like, good weird. Pretty."

Kindle chuckled. "So are yours. Pretty weird, I mean."

"Hey..." I shifted in place, still not looking up. "Will you teach me how to dance?"

"I don't know how to tell you this, but I've been doing that for the past month. Or have you not noticed? That would explain the lack of improvement."

I shook my head, finally meeting his eyes again. "No, I mean an Ignean dance. That was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"Oh."

"Would it be disrespectful for a non-Ignean to learn?"

Kindle scratched his jaw. "No, it wouldn't, its just... significantly more difficult than waltzing."

I shrugged. "It just seems more up my alley."

"If you really want, I can teach you the prayer to Skhorekhi, that's probably the simplest of the bunch," he said. "I'll dance slowly and flip the movements, so you can mirror me."

"How many dance prayers are there?"

"Five. Our God, Naresharakh, is five in one, and each of their attributes has their own prayer. Skhorekhi, the Seeder, is the spirit of earth, new life... a few other, unimportant things." Kindle looked away and waved a dismissive hand.

I nodded. "Okay, so show me this Seeder Dance."

He coughed, looking embarrassed. "Perhaps we should start with something else, actually."

"Oh, ok." I furrowed my brows but didn't press.

"We'll start with the prayer to Imaporekhi, the Wanderer. Air, flight, freedom. Slightly more challenging than Skhorekhi." Kindle moved into a starting position that involved angling himself to the side and curling backwards with his hands reaching up toward the clouds. "I'll go through the dance once myself so that you can see what it looks like, then we'll start again and you can mimic me."