The Moonburner Cycle

by Claire Luana

  The tables contained more food than she had ever seen in one place: fresh fruits, plump pastry dumplings of different shapes and sizes, grilled fish, eggs, juices, cheeses and rice. The moonburners must eat as well as the queen.

  Kai filled her bowl with what looked like porridge and ladled in nuts, fruit and cream. It was about the only thing she recognized. She poured herself a cup of lemongrass tea and turned around to face the gauntlet of eyes once again.

  “Hi!” Maaya stood before her. “Do you want to sit with us?”

  Kai was so relieved, she could have kissed her.

  Maaya led Kai to a long table in the section of the room that seemed, based on the color of neighboring uniforms, to be reserved for the samanera.

  Kai looked over her shoulder at the tables of younger girls in gray. “Are you sure it’s okay if I sit here?”

  Maaya waved dismissively. “We segregate mostly, but its not a rule. All the novices are so much younger than you. You shouldn’t have to spend all your time with them.”

  Kai smiled. “Thanks.”

  The two of them slid onto benches on either side of the table. Quitsu hopped up beside her, his furry tail hanging down almost to the floor.

  “Plus, you have Quitsu,” Maaya said. “So everyone knows you’re special.”

  The girl sitting next to Maaya cleared her throat, and Maaya tore her gaze

  from Quitsu. She had been staring.

  “This is Emi,” Maaya said. Emi was striking in contrast to Maaya’s cuteness. Her long silver hair flowed in waves down her back, curling around her face in a nonchalant manner that Kai couldn’t help but envy. She had a long, oval face, delicate features and eyes so dark they were almost black. She looked like she belonged on some nobleman’s arm, rather than sitting on a wooden bench, eating rice.

  “I’m Kai,” Kai said. “And this is Quitsu. Nice to meet you.”

  “Nice to meet you, too.” Even her voice was elegant, low and smooth. Kai blew her shaggy bangs from her forehead, trying to tame a few of the pieces that were still unruly after her night’s sleep.

  “What did you mean about Quitsu? And me being special?” Kai asked.

  “Seishen are rare, especially among the students,” Emi answered. “Usually, they only bond with royalty or other important burners, like the Oracle.”

  “There is only one other samanera who has a seishen,” Maaya said. “Who?” Kai asked.

  “Chiya,” Maaya said, indicating behind Kai with a nod of her head. “The samanera who was fighting last night.”

  Kai looked over her shoulder and found the woman two tables down. She didn’t look as intimidating sitting down. Her shoulder-length silver hair was pulled into a no-nonsense ponytail. Her face was plain, but could almost be pretty. Her body set her apart—ropey forearms and muscled biceps straining against her uniform. Kai’s attention slid to the seishen at her side, sitting on the bench with its back to her. Its fluffy tail hung off the bench, but unlike Quitsu’s, it was striped silver and white down to the tip.

  “A raccoon?” she asked.

  “Raccoon dog,” Maaya corrected. “His name is Tanu. Or so I hear. He’s not as friendly as Quitsu.” Maaya beamed at Quitsu, who was doing his best to look bored.

  “If he’s anything like her, I’m not surprised,” Kai said. “She seems like trouble.”

  “That’s not a bad sentiment. You should probably steer clear of her for a while,” Emi said. “She’s the most powerful samanera, and the only student with a seishen, so she’s been top dog for a long time. Now you show up, a novice, with a seishen, and all these stories about how you survived the desert and fought off sunburners before you even made it to the citadel? She will be looking to pick a fight.”

  The girls must have seen the dismay on Kai’s face.

  “It will be fine,” Maaya said, shooting a warning glance at Emi. “They don’t let student bouts get too rough.”

  “Speaking of, was there actually a sunburner attack near the palace?” Emi asked, lowering her voice. “It’s impossible to get a straight answer from the faculty.”

  “There was an attack,” Kai admitted. “One of them knocked me off a koumori. And then he did this.” She pointed to her bruised face.

  “My goddess! What were they doing so close to Kyuden?” Maaya asked. The two girls looked at Kai expectantly, eyes wide.

  Kai shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know how much I am supposed to talk about it. I’m sorry.”

  Maaya pouted. Emi crossed her arms.

  “I’ll ask Pura, and tell you everything I can,” Kai said.

  “Oh no,” Emi said. “Not necessary. Don’t get a master involved.”

  “Can you at least tell us what they looked like?” Maaya asked. “I’ve never seen a sunburner.”

  “One was awful. The other had golden hair pulled back in a ponytail. He was a nobleman of some type. He was tall . . .” she paused, her face growing hot. “Tall and handsome.”

  “Ooh,” Maaya said. “Sounds like you have a thing for this sunburner.”

  “Don’t even joke about that,” Emi scolded. “You know we can’t think about such things, especially with a sunburner. You know what happened to Davina.”

  They both grew quiet. Kai looked from one to the other. “What happened to Davina?”

  Maaya and Emi exchanged a look.

  “She has to find out sometime,” Emi said.

  “Being a moonburner is not just a job. It’s our life. It’s who we are. We were chosen by Tsuki. We are hers, and must stay pure for her,” Maaya said. “The queen is Tsuki’s emissary on earth. The moonburners belong to Tsuki, and so by rights, they belong to the queen.”

  “What do you mean, belong?” Kai asked. “Like we are her property?”

  “Yes,” Maaya said. “We are hers, her weapons. She takes care of us and in

  return, we give our lives to her, to the cause. We cannot marry, bear children or have a family. We cannot engage in . . . carnal pursuits. Davina was a samanera who fell in love. She tried to run away with the man. Her crime was punishable by death,” Maaya finished softly.

  “They killed her for falling in love?”

  “I suppose falling in love isn’t technically against the rules. But acting on it? Yes. They killed her for laying with him and for deserting,” Maaya explained.

  Kai was speechless. She knew her life had never been hers to begin with, but she had always thought that making it to the moonburners would mean freedom. It was bittersweet to escape one cage only to find herself in another. Would she never be free to live her life as she pleased?

  “I know,” Emi said with a harsh laugh. “You wish they were a little more up front about the job during recruitment. But the truth is, none of us ever had a choice in this. We don’t choose the goddess. She chooses us.”

  Kai’s first class of the night was Moonburning. Nanase had arranged a special tutor for Kai until she caught up with the rest of the novices.

  Kai poked her head through the door of the dimly lit classroom and grinned when she saw Pura at the front of the room. She ran up to the older woman and stopped just short of throwing her arms around her. Pura wore her easy smile and fishtail braid.

  Kai followed Pura to the center of the room where they sat down cross-legged on the floor. The room was remarkable. The octagonal walls and ceiling were entirely made of iron and panes of glass, allowing the soft glow from the moon and stars to shine in. The floor of the room sloped downward towards the middle and several circular sets of stairs littered with soft cushions made their way down to the center of the room, where Kai and Pura now sat. Moon orbs nestled against the walls and hung in the air, like constellations close enough to touch.

  “Thank you for tutoring me. I am sure you have plenty of obligations,” Kai said.

  “I asked to tutor you, and the queen obliged,” Pura said. “She agrees that you are very important, though we are not sure how.”

  “Important?” Kai asked, eyebrow raised.


  “When I saw you dragging yourself and Quitsu out of the desert, I knew there was a reason you were alive. Tsuki has plans for you.”

  Kai shifted uncomfortably. “I know what you might think, but I’m just a girl.” And I’m not even good at being a girl, Kai thought. “I don’t know how to moonburn. Maybe Tsuki got it wrong.”

  “The goddess is never wrong,” Pura said with a certainty Kai wished she could share. “But let’s not worry about any grand destiny for now. The reason you cannot moonburn is because you are untrained. It is my job to fix that.”

  “As you know, moonburners draw our power from the moon, but more specifically, from its rays. We absorb it into our body, through our hair, our eyes, but mostly through our skin. We hold and store the moonlight in our spirit, called our qi. When the moon has not risen, or during the new moon, we can pull its power, but it is difficult, sluggish. It takes moonburners years to master this technique. When the moon is high, like it is tonight, and its rays fall on you, the power floods through you and it almost demands to be used. Often it manifests in tingling on your skin or the back of your neck, or generally feeling energetic—needing to move. Have you felt those sensations before?”

  Kai thought back to the nights when she would run around the garden, opening her senses to the world around her. Or to the moonlight cattle drive when she raced off across the plain on her horse, leaving her father behind yelling at her that she had gone mad.

  “Yes,” Kai said. “I think I have experienced that.”

  “Good. Now, the next step is directing that energy through your qi into a focal point.” Pura handed her a large silver cuff bracelet, mounted with a milky-white oval stone. “This will be your focal point. It is moonstone, an excellent conductor for burning.”

  Kai held the bracelet of hammered silver in her hands, examining the stone. She could see something swirling in its depths, like mist that clings to a field on a cool morning.

  “Put it on,” Pura said.

  Kai did, finding the fine seam on one side of the bracelet and opening it. The bracelet felt heavy and cool in her hand, but when she snapped it closed around her left wrist, it grew warm, somehow molding to her arm. It was comfortable, like a second skin.

  “We call these bracelets our links,” Pura said, ignoring Kai’s wide eyes. “When a student becomes a samanera, they are given a link as a symbol of their growing skill. We will practice with this one.”

  Pura rose and gestured for Kai to do the same. She took Kai’s hands and led her to a spot in the room where moonlight was streaming through the glass ceiling and pooling on the floor like silver lava. Kai noticed for the first time that Pura was wearing a link that matched her own.

  “Close your eyes.”

  Kai obliged.

  “Now, first, quiet your mind. To moonburn effectively and safely, our mind must be still, a cool ocean reflecting the light of a moonlit sky. Imagine yourself as an island in a silent ocean. You are solid, and those still waters surround you.”

  After a time, Kai’s heart rate slowed, and she began to feel the serenity Pura described.

  “I think I’m there,” Kai said, eyes still closed.

  “If you think you are there, you are not there. You must know you are there.”

  Kai pushed down her irritation and set herself again to the task of quieting her mind. It was difficult. But finally, slowly, she sunk into the cool water of the ocean. It was as if she was floating in a dark place devoid of emotion or movement.

  “I’m there,” she said, sure this time.

  “Good. Now feel the moonlight on your skin, filling your senses. Feel the pull of the moon on the water, like the tides. It washes against you.”

  At first, Kai felt nothing, covered by the heavy coolness of the ocean. But as she continued to concentrate, reaching her senses towards something unknowable, she began to feel it. There was energy in the water, movement. Her skin felt alive, full of pins and needles. She felt like she should be glowing.

  “Wow,” she said.

  “Now this can be hard for novices, but once you get it, you’ll always be able to do it. Imagine yourself gathering those feelings, those sensations towards yourself, like ocean waves against the shore. Once you’ve gathered them together into yourself, imagine yourself pushing them out through your arm into the moonstone. The waves are leaving you, but with a new direction, a new purpose. One you have chosen.”

  Kai took a deep breath and followed Pura’s instructions, trying to reel in delicate waves of sparks and tingles and sensations. She gathered them inside her, and their warmth nestled within her, like the first sips of hot miso soup after a cold rainy day driving cattle.

  She gathered her strength and moved to push the warmth out her arm, into the moonstone, willing the waves to leave her, to send their rhythmic pattern into the moonstone. But the waves wouldn’t budge. They splashed against something firm and hard, a dam keeping the energy trapped. More waves of light entered her, joining the tingling sparking mass inside her. It was getting hotter. She inhaled sharply, the light now becoming painful with heat and pressure.

  “I can’t . . .” she said. She felt hot, as if she were catching fire from the inside.

  “Something is wrong.” Kai heard Quitsu’s voice, but she kept her eyes squeezed closed, trying to keep her focus on the boiling mass within her.

  “Kai?” Pura put her hand on Kai’s arm and yanked it away. “Your skin is hot!” Pura pushed Kai out of the moonlight, back into one of the recesses of the room.

  “Try to push the power into the moonstone,” Pura said. “The moonstone is designed as a conduit. It wants to take the power from you.”

  A loud buzzing was filling her head, and Kai could hardly hear Pura. The heat inside her had become a raging furnace; sweat poured off her. Her thoughts were fuzzy and the room was growing dim.

  “I . . . can’t,” she managed. “Won’t . . . leave . . .”

  “Open your mind, Kai.” It was Pura’s voice, distant and tinny. “Let me in.”

  Kai tried to do as instructed, but felt consciousness slipping from her. A foreign presence entered her mind, swimming through the fog. It was a vaguely unpleasant sensation, but compared to the inferno inside her, she hardly minded. The presence was determined, forceful. The presence tried to push the power from her, but was unsuccessful. The power continued to rage. And then, finally, Kai felt the magic draining from her, like water down a bathtub after the plug is pulled. Kai slipped from consciousness.

  CHAPTER 10

  Kai awoke to whispered voices around her. She cracked an eye and saw Pura and Nanase standing over her in hushed conversation. She stilled her breathing, feigning sleep. She felt Quitsu’s comforting weight by her feet.

  “She drew a tremendous amount of power. I could hardly manage it myself. No wonder the goddess chose her. If we can figure out how to break down the blockage, I suspect she will be the strongest moonburner in her generation,” Pura said.

  “Good. We need powerful burners,” Nanase said. “What can you tell me about the blockage? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

  “When I linked with her, I felt the moonlight trapped within her—walled in. I couldn’t push it out through her. A regular burner’s qi is porous; the light travels in and out of us freely. It was as if hers was a one way valve. The light goes in, albeit with more difficulty than a regular burner, but it does not come out. I had to pull the light into myself to keep it from burning her up, but even that was nearly impossible.”

  “And you have never encountered a student with these traits before?”

  “No. I . . . I don’t believe this is a natural phenomenon. I think someone did this to her.”

  “What?” In her surprise, Kai blew her cover.

  Nanase turned her hawklike gaze to Kai. “Eavesdropping is frowned upon, child.”

  Kai looked up sheepishly, scooting up into a seated position. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to disturb your conversation.”

  “How con
siderate,” Nanase said, arching an eyebrow. “But I suppose there is no harm. We would have needed to discuss this with you shortly.”

  “Will I ever be able to moonburn?” Kai asked.

  “Of course.”

  “Oh yes,” Pura and Nanase answered over each other.

  Nanase continued, “We may be warriors, but we are scholars, too. We rarely come across a problem we cannot solve. I will put the mystery to the faculty and see what answers they find.”

  Kai was discharged from the hospital ward after Nanase’s visit. Kai and Quitsu walked into the courtyard, flooded by warm yellow sunlight. She had been unconscious through most of the night and the morning. The courtyard was deserted, as most of the citadel’s inhabitants were sleeping.

  “I don’t know why they bothered giving you a room,” Quitsu remarked. “You’ve spent twice as much time in the hospital ward.”

  “Very funny,” Kai said, aiming an exaggerated kick towards his hindquarters. It felt good to joke after the weight of Nanase and Pura’s revelation.

  “Let’s not go back to our room just yet,” Kai said. Despite her natural moonburner predilections, it felt good to be outside in the sunshine. And she was too wound up to go to bed.

  Kai and Quitsu set off through the cobblestone courtyard and into one of the gardens. The sunlight filtered through leafy maple trees onto green grass. A pool filled with orange koi fish nestled against a cluster of rocks. She and Quitsu walked down the gravel path, taking it all in. Kai picked a familiar leaf off a low bush and twirled it between her fingers, breathing in its fresh scent.

  “I used to play in my mother’s garden behind our house when I was a child. Her menthe plant was my favorite,” Kai said, as the memory flooded back. “My mother would always tear the leaves away from me.” She smiled ruefully. “‘No little boy lolls around smelling menthe leaves!’“ Kai mimicked her mother’s voice.

  “It must have been hard,” Quitsu said.

  “I didn’t know any different,” Kai said. “It kept me alive. More than I can say for them.” Tears temporarily blurred her vision as images of her parents swam to the surface unbidden.