A Deep Blue Stone Atop A Dais Novels & Stories

he said, his eyes shifting to sapphire blue once again, making the young boy drown in the ocean of their beauty. He shyly approached and lied next to him. Taegen stared at him, his hair was moving with the breeze and shining brighter under the sunlight. His cheeks were a little pink from blushing and his lips were pressed together because he was nervous. "Diamond," he whispered. Jimmy turned to look at him, he nearly gasped at how beautiful the king looked, his eyes were like two jewels, his black hair covering them a little. "Yes?" "I don't know where you are coming from, but I hope you like Fantasia," Taegen said with the most gentle voice.

" Gautam said firmly. Siddh nodded reluctantly and they all got ready with a flower canopy to hold it over the bride's head while she went for Jaimala. *********** As the wedding ceremony unfolded with grandeur and opulence, guests from near and far marveled at the spectacle before them. The venue, adorned with elaborate floral arrangements and shimmering golden draperies, exuded an aura of regal splendor. Crystal chandeliers cast a warm, golden glow, illuminating the grand hall with an ethereal light.

Quinn’s POV The room around us at that moment felt like it began to swirl, as if a baby tornado was rising from the debris beneath our feet, levitating the million little pieces of the moonstone in the air. Lyra at that moment took a step back, dropping the stone that she had crushed the moonstone with from in her hand, as she stared on with me, watching the display of power before our eyes, releasing from the shattered moonstone.

“It was a foundation. A core.” Damien rubbed his arms to shake off the chill. “Foundations don’t usually hum like they’re alive.” I couldn’t argue. A soft light pulsed at the far side of the chamber. Something was sitting at the very center of the room on a stone platform—a round object about the size of a grapefruit, floating a few inches above the surface. It glowed with a shifting iridescence, like a drop of mercury caught in sunlight. It called to me. I didn’t hear a voice. It was more like… a pull in my blood.

The final days leading up to the double ceremony dissolved into a blur of silver satin, heavy cedar boughs, and an undercurrent of sharp, military alertness. The Crystal Courtyard had been transformed once more, its flagstones scrubbed entirely clean of the festival’s ash, leaving behind only the permanent, faint silver patterns seared into the stone by the descent of the gods. Hundreds of high-backed wooden chairs were now arranged in precise, geometric blocks on either side of the wide, flat central aisle, leaving no room for a high throne or an elevated dais. They would all stand on the same level, an absolute visual declaration of the balance they had fought to build.

Darius turned towards the Stone. “Come forward.” She did. The entire hall went quiet. Vivian placed her palm against the Black Moon Stone. Nothing happened. Not a flicker. Not a sound. Vivian’s shoulders stayed straight. Victor’s did too. For three long breaths, nobody moved. Then Victor said, “Again.” The word was soft. The room changed around it. Pressure settled over my shoulders. Familiar. Wrong. Darius turned his head. “She completed the rite.”

Vaelin’s aura filled the wardrobe until the lamps leaned. I did not drop the scrap. I set it in the brazier and watched my old dress become nothing. The smell was small and enormous. “She is in the list,” I said. “She is in the gown. She is under the dais if the note is not theater.” “Then we look under the dais before they reach the valley.” We went together, still in the red because there was no time to become a smaller woman. Guards hauled the dais panels. Dust. Old offerings. No cup of bone. Only a ring of faint black on the stone, cup-sized, pointing down into the mountain toward the ice cellar.

How did it end up becoming that small? I took a sideway glance towards Tristan and sighed. Although he did not show it, he must be feeling sad and frustrated to finally find her long lost mother’s spirit stone in this state… “Now that you’ve seen it, let’s begin this auction formally,” the announcer on stage declared. The attendants shoved the red ruby out of the spotlight and moved another covered crate on stage. This time, it was a fairly larger one. “Dahlly, can I ask you for a favor?”

At the altar, Aiden had finally reached the stone. He could see it clearly now… a perfect blue crystal, about the size of his fist, pulsing with inner light. It sat in the carved depression like it had been waiting there for centuries. He reached out slowly, carefully, his fingers hovering just above the surface. Behind him, the battle raged on. He could hear Damon's snarls, Dazzle's battle cries, the guardian's roars of fury.

The old moonstone dais had never looked less like a holy place. They crested the ridge at dusk, the sky bruised purple and red. The clearing below lay in a natural bowl, ringed with jagged stones and scrub pine. At its center, the dais sat: a wide circle of pale, veined stone half-sunk into the earth, its surface etched with ancient lines. Tonight, it was ringed with vehicles. Tribunal transports and shield rigs hummed around it like parasites clinging to a heart. Portable floodlights had been set up at the cardinal points, bathing the dais in stark, clinical white.