For seventeen years, Maia, a promising acolyte of the Goddess of Light, has hidden her abnormality to manifest flames over her skin. But after she performs in the temple’s Summer Solstice ceremony, the Emperor’s mysterious envoy, Lord Quei, approaches to say he knows about her secret ability. Even worse, Quei threatens to have her executed as a demon unless she joins him on a quest to recover lost coins, claiming they contain memories of their past lives on a distant, far more advanced world. 

To avoid a death sentence, Maia must turn her back on her principles and resort to deceit and thievery. The truth might explain the strange wisps of memories that haunt her dreams. But it could also destroy her beliefs about the Goddess she reveres, the nature of the world she lives in, and her own identity.

"Fire Dance"

by Caroline Sciriha