As Mina and her friends flew into the city, the cheers and music became nearly deafening. The sound swallowed them, until it sank into their bodies. Mina felt the singing inside her bones. Everywhere she looked there was another wonder.

The breeze carried the scent of flowers, and undercutting it, Mina smelled the hint of char. She watched the tops of the buildings, looking for the lightning guardians. Every skyscraper had a metal rod that rose from it.

She heard a crack.

There!

A ball of lightning shimmered around the top of one of the rods, and a lightning beast swooped past it. Leaning sideways, its guardian scooped up the ball and tossed it to the next skyscraper, where another guardian caught it.

And then the sky suddenly darkened, as the wind guardians swept thickening clouds in front of the sun and the sun guardians dimmed their lights.

“Whoa, the tournament!” Jyx said from beside her. “It’s started!”

As if her words had ignited them, the lightning guardians burst into action. There were dozens of simultaneous matches played between dozens of teams, all over the city, using the lightning rods on the tops of skyscrapers as their goalposts. Zipping between the rods, the players tossed bolts, they blocked, they dodged, they ducked, and they soared. Lightning zapped through the air, zigzagging between the skyscrapers in a game that was faster, more dangerous, and more extraordinary than Mina could have imagined.

«Mina.»

This is amazing!

«Mina! We’re here. The heart of Alorria.»

Ahead was the bridge, and the capitol building itself. The roof had been peeled back so that the beautiful hall was open to the sky. Bleachers had been built all around and bedecked in every flower imaginable: sunflowers from the farmlands, tropical blossoms from the rainforests, cherry and apple blossoms from the orchards, white sprays of snowdrops from the mountains, rushes from the lake district, and what looked like black roses to represent the barren lands. She saw the section that held the prime minister, beside the archway.

Mina wanted to turn Pixit around and flee.

She felt so small compared to all this. How could she ever capture the attention of an entire nation? Or even just one person in it? This was a mistake. It will never work. They’ll never notice us. They’ll never hear us!

«I’ll fly us as close as I can.»

And then Mina spotted a device that looked familiar. A projector with a speaking tube. She remembered it from her short-lived trip to the capitol. Jyx had been amazed to see it. She’d babbled about it—​what had she said?

«It’s powered by lightning,» Pixit supplied. «It puts someone’s image on a wall, and it can make someone’s voice twice as big. Three times. A hundred times, if you have enough lightning.»

Mina began to grin.

Tell the others. We need every spark they’ve got.