My feet sink into the mud as I am pushed off the carriage.
Another set of feet sinks in next to me. Neither of us dares speak. Even if I did speak, I'm not sure what I would say. We've been preparing for this for fifteen years.
I feel like I'm standing in quicksand, but I can't see through the blindfold over my eyes. My feet slowly sink inch by inch. My heart pounds in my chest with impatience. It beats so fast that I am sure I might pass out.
I never do.
The royal guard behind me undoes the shackles around my wrists. He's careful not to hurt me. His delicate touch does nothing to help with my impatience.
He tosses them back into the carriage once they're off. The impact of the metal against the wooden carriage is loud enough to make me tense up.
He does the same to the person next to me. I hear them shuffle uncomfortably next to me. He's scared. I'm excited.
"Walk."
I take my first step. It's completely blind.
There's no light intruding into my blindfold. The moon is high in the sky. My surroundings are completely silent. There aren't even bugs screaming out into the night. There is no chirping from the night birds.
There is only silence and the smell of wet wood after a thunderstorm. There hadn't been a storm at the palace, but the forest is a different place. It doesn't conform to the real world.
Footsteps follow behind me. He only moves once I do.
"Makaio…"
He blindly bumps into my back. The impact nearly knocks me forward into the mud. I bite my tongue to keep from scolding him. I don't want us to mess this up.
The Stardust Ceremony is never done with two, but there have never been twins born into the royal family.
"Go a different direction, Meric."
I know he's frowning. He doesn't want to leave my side.
Our father and brother both did this ceremony on their fifteenth nameday, and both lived. He will be fine in here alone.
He does finally leave me, though.
Meric heads off to the right.
His steps are slow, not made with confidence. I can make each of them as he drags his boots from the mud.
I go to the left. I allow the forest to guide me around. My feet splash through the mud and puddles. There is nothing slow about the way I move. I let the forest decide my fate.
A smile forces itself to my lips.
I walk even faster.
I never run into any of the trees, despite the blindfold. I can feel them. The entire forest is alive. It embraces me like a warm hug because it understands me. It answers to my blood. The magic radiates through me as it guides me.
There is no map for this forest.
You are meant to wander blindly through it by yourself. So I do. Branches snap around me, but I never touch the blindfold. I don't let fear paralyze me. I keep moving.
The forest will take me where I need to go.
Eventually, I am no longer standing in mud.
The wood creaks out beneath me as I walk across it. Some of the planks feel aged, like they might snap beneath my weight. I reach out to my right and find a railing—my heart races in my chest.
My mother used to tell us bedtime stories of the forest shifting to match what is in one's soul. It is up to you to take it within your palms and craft it into power you can control.
I never thought it was real.
I start running.
The wooden dock isn't long. I stumble off the end of it. It's my first stumble of the night. My hands instinctively reach out in front of me to catch myself, but they fail. There's nothing to catch myself on.
I plunge into water.
Ice cold water.
The coldness engulfs my entire body. I have to will my limbs not to respond. I have to plead with them not to fight against the water to save me. My body hasn't caught up to my mind yet. My lungs haven't realized I can still breathe.
I close my eyes.
I let the water infiltrate me.
I can feel it. The power within the forest is overwhelming. Its heart beats loudly within my ears alongside mine. The beats are so loud it rattles even my bones inside me.
It hears me.
It will bend.
Something slashes at me. Still, I do not remove my blindfold. I let its claws carve into my arms and legs. The claws dig so deeply that they attack my muscles. They remove the meat down to the bone.
I keep my eyes closed, begging the forest to bend.
I will be stronger than the forest spirit.