Vortex Chronicles: The Complete Series Read online

  Vortex Chronicles

  The Complete Series

  Elise Kova

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, and events in this book are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Published by Silver Wing Press

  Copyright © 2020 by Elise Kova

  All rights reserved. Neither this book, nor any parts within it may be sold or reproduced in any form without permission.

  Cover Artwork illustration by Livia Prima

  Editing by Rebecca Faith Editorial

  Proofreading by Kate Anderson

  eISBN: 978-1-949694-20-8

  Paperback ISBN: 978-1-949694-21-5

  Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-949694-22-2

  Contents

  Map of the Solaris Empire

  Detailed Map of Meru

  The Vortex Still Spins

  Vortex Visions (Book One)

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chosen Champion (Book Two)

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Failed Future (Book Three)

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Sovereign Sacrifice (Book Four)

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Crystal Caged (Book Five)

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Epilogue

  Next Book

  Also by Elise Kova

  About the Author: Elise Kova

  Appendix

  Pronounciation

  Common Terms

  Elemental Affinities

  Lightspinning

  Map of Solaris

  Sehra’s Map of the World

  Detailed Map of Meru

  The Story of Dia

  Acknowledgements

  Vortex Visions

  Crystal Caged

  The Solaris Empire

  Detailed Map of Meru

  “You did well, but things are only beginning now. The vortex still spins.”

  — CRYSTAL CROWNED (Air Awakens, #5)

  for the dreamers who never woke up

  and the doers who never gave up

  Chapter One

  In the darkness, a bitter smile crossed her lips.

  It’s just a candle, Vi told herself. One single candle in the holder at the edge of her bedside table. Vi took a deep breath, trying to quell her nerves. It was ridiculous, laughable even; she was a Solaris for the Mother’s sake. Yet she was more daunted by this one candle than she would have been facing down a beast in the jungle.

  Most Firebearers could light it with a thought. She should have been able to do the same. Vi’s hands balled into fists, clutching her bed sheets over her knees. Deep within her was an insurmountable wall. She was on one side, barely able to do more than dredge up a spark of magic. On the other was the power of her forefathers.

  Her fingers relaxed, and she reached out. The burnt wick drew a dark line of soot across her hands, nearly invisible in the night.

  “It’s just a candle,” Vi repeated aloud, searching for a sliver of magic. “A tiny spark, that’s it.”

  White lightning flashed in the darkness between her fingers. The wick caught the heat,
ignited, and she breathed a sigh of relief. For a brief second, Vi watched the fire dance around her fingertips and imagined the stable little flame was her own.

  Vi pulled her hand away quickly, pushing aside the thinly woven blanket covering her bed along with the thought.

  She didn’t have time to spend on fantasies. There were things she wanted to do and not much time to do it. Her obligations as the Crown Princess would begin all too early.

  The air was heavy with the aroma of fresh wood, sap, and the damp tang of morning. Vi had smelled this perfume her whole life. Her chambers were cut into the trunk of one of the massive trees of Soricium—capital of the North. The wooden walls of her room were sleek, polished. They contrasted with the gnarled ceiling of decorative roots and branches that spilled down, weaving into each of the four corners of her bed, all crafted by the magic hand of a Groundbreaker.

  As she moved beyond the foot of her bed, the halo of light from her candle glinted off gilded frames lined on the dresser opposite. There were several, but they all contained carefully painted portraits of the same three people—her mother, father, and brother.

  The family she should have been reunited with three years ago. The family that lived far to the south in the Empire’s capital, Solarin. The family that had traded her away in a political deal.

  “Another year,” she murmured to the pictures. Her eyes landed on the flaxen tresses of her brother—a direct contrast to her own dark locks. No one would guess they were twins by looking at them. Vi tried to swallow the lump that grew larger in her throat the longer she looked at the portrait. “Happy birthday to you, too, brother.”

  Vi turned away from the painted, staring eyes of her family and toward the small pile of supplies stacked in the corner between the dresser and her window.

  Everything was as she’d left it the night before, and the night before that. Her quiver hung on its peg, bow attached, the fletching of half a dozen arrows peeking out from the top. A metallic sun—the Solaris sigil—glinted as the candlelight moved over it before illuminating the clothing she’d neatly folded on a chair underneath the quiver.

  She would only be gone for three days. Not much was needed. But Vi took stock of every article of clothing and ration as though her life depended on it.

  Three precious days of freedom were all she got every year.

  It was the best thing her birthday had ever brought her.

  “One more thing and I should be set,” Vi muttered to herself, straightening away from her packing. Grabbing her candle, she strode out of her bedroom.

  The living space of her quarters held a table and two couches for her use—though Vi rarely used them when she was alone.

  Which meant she rarely used them at all.

  The main entry had four doors; the bedroom Vi just left was one. Clockwise, the next door led to her personal study, after that was her classroom, and then the main door which led to an outer balcony that connected to the rest of Soricium’s fortress by rope bridges and wide branches alike.

  She’d always thought of her chambers like a daisy. The sitting room was its yellow center and everything else spun out around it like petals in the trunk of a giant tree.

  Vi ventured to her study.

  In the daytime, the room would be illuminated by the window above the drafting table sandwiched between the bookshelves that lined the walls. Now, her candlelight fell on every hanging map and book spine. But it also revealed something that shouldn’t be there.

  Candle wax dribbled over the edge of the holder and onto her fingers, but Vi didn’t notice. Her breath caught in her throat as she engaged in a staring contest with five foreign objects. It wasn’t the first time presents had been left for her, but it caught her off guard every year.

  Some wicked little corner of her mind would always tell her that this would be the year her family would give up on her. That they had never wanted her to come home to begin with—never wanted her to begin with. The doubts would compound into stories about how her parents had been eager to make the deal with Sehra, now Chieftain of the North. That the peace assured by Vi spending her first fourteen years of life as a ward was only a fringe benefit, and not the main goal.

  She knew better. The deal had been struck well before Vi was conceived. Before her parents were even wed. Had it not been for it, she may not even exist, as her father was originally betrothed to Sehra… But every time her birthday approached, Vi seemed subconsciously keen to avoid logic, and the doubts grew louder.

  And every time she saw the stack of presents, the doubts were silenced for a blissful second. Vi crossed the room, resting her fingers lightly on the ribbon of one of the packages.

  “When did he stash you in here?”

  Setting her candle down, Vi gravitated to a suspiciously cylindrical present wrapped in Solaris blue and Imperial gold. She recognized her brother’s script on the card.

  The Senate had never let her brother come north to visit. They’d argued that having both heirs in the hands of former enemies of the Empire was far too great a risk, making a huge deal of it every time it was brought up. So while her mother and father had visited, Vi only knew her twin through letters and portraits.

  Vi unwrapped the delicately embossed paper, exposing the contents within. As expected, it was a document tube. Even on her most bitter day of the year, Vi found a smile. Only a map from her brother could do that.

  Carefully sliding out the parchment, she unfurled the delicate blueprint.

  “The Solaris Castle—Rose Garden,” Vi read aloud, then set about finding an open spot on her shelves to pin the sketch among the others her brother had sent her of the castle in Solarin.

  The bookcases were so cramped that not even shadows could squeeze between the spines—packed to the brim with manuscripts of all shapes and sizes, scrolls, and stacks of papers. Pinned on the outward facing edge of the shelves were maps, some created by professionals, others drawn entirely by or embellished with her own hand. In the swirling lines of ink and charcoal were countless stories of places she’d never get to see, and yet, felt like she somehow knew.

  Places that she longed to someday visit… if she only ever had the chance.

  Vi found a relatively open spot, tacking the blueprint in place by its top corners so she could lift it to still access the shelves behind. Her fingers trailed the lines of the architect’s skilled hand, and she silently thanked whatever nameless artist her brother had found this time.

  Returning to her table, Vi skimmed over the gifts from her parents, Aunt Elecia, and Uncle Jax. They were of predictable shapes, mostly books. It made a singular, strange-looking parcel stand out all the more.

  It was wrapped in black silk and nearly feather-light. A small black envelope had been slid under the black ribbon, fastening it together. Vi undid the knot at the top, lifting the letter and affirming her suspicions.

  Black was a peculiar color in the Empire. No one wanted to associate with it… unless they were a Sorcerer.

  On the back of the envelope was a silver seal: a dragon curling in on itself made a perfect circle, split in two and off-set. It was called the Broken Moon, and it was the symbol of the Tower of Sorcerers.

  She slid her finger underneath, gently tearing open the letter.

  Dear Vi,

  Forgive my informality in addressing you, but you will always be a dear child to me as I have been by your mother’s side since long before you were born. I was there waiting as she delivered you and your brother. I held you when you were a babe. And your mother is still one of my dearest friends in the world, confiding in me all the pains she feels at your absence.