How did they know a storm was going to come every decade? Without beasts, nature should have been unpredictable. It didn’t make sense.

Mina frowned at her paper. She was supposed to be writing about the importance of obedience to Alorrian law, using historical references, but as near as she could tell, history had been one disaster after another. I guess that’s the point. It was only when guardians and beasts began working together that the disasters ended. For us, at least.

The outsiders still faced plenty of disasters.

She chewed on her lower lip.

“‘It seems the more we try to fix the world, the more we break it.’”

«You know, I’m supposed to be resting,» Pixit complained. «It’s difficult to sleep when you’re thinking so hard that you sound like you are in the same room, shouting.»

Sorry.

But Mina couldn’t stop her brain from whirling. In the journals of the first guardians, when the guardians and beasts were learning how to control the storms, they made things worse by creating terrible storms elsewhere, resulting in those horrifying lists of names. What if that’s still happening?

It was a ridiculous thought.

Storm guardians and beasts had learned from the past. They worked together, obeying the law, to make life safer for everyone.

But what if by controlling the weather in Alorria, we’re making it worse somewhere else? Like in Dern?

Jyx burst into their dorm room. “Mina, Mina, Mina! Guess what?” She didn’t even pause for Mina to try to guess, which was good because Mina had no idea why Jyx was bouncing up and down. “We get to go to the city! All of us! All the students at Mytris are invited to meet with the prime minister, and she’s going to present to us the plans for the festival!”

“All of us?” Mina thought of Pixit. He was still too injured to fly. And maybe I don’t even deserve to say “us” yet.

«Of course you do, Mina.»

Jyx couldn’t hear them, naturally. “Yes, Pixit too! We’ll go by river ship. Because it’s easier to keep us together that way. They don’t trust us not to get distracted and fly off. I think they’ve hired, like, five ships to take us all. Oh, Mina, this is amazing! We’ll be able to watch some of the rehearsal! It won’t be at full power, of course, but we’ll see a taste of it. And then soon: the festival itself! Guardians and beasts from across Alorria—​they’ll all come to the capital to perform. And oh, the water shows! And the lights! It’s going to be incredible! I don’t remember the last festival. I was two. You were two. You can’t remember it either. But I heard it’s amazing! And this year, the prime minister is promising it will be the hugest ever!”