Wings of Ebony: Chapters 17–26

by J. Elle
After the death of her mother, seventeen-year-old Rue is forced to leave her younger sister and go with her estranged father to Ghizon, a hidden island full of magical beings. There, Rue learns the truth of her ancestry and why she must go back to save her sister before it's too late.

Here are links to our lists for the novel: Chapters 1–5, Chapters 6–16, Chapters 17–26, Chapter 27–Afterthoughts
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. bile
    a digestive juice secreted by the liver
    Julius's words fade and bile hovers at the back of my throat.
  2. pallet
    a portable platform for storing or moving goods
    In the center, pallet wood crates are stacked with packages covered with plastic wrap.
  3. posse
    an informal group of friends
    Avoiding him is easy enough on a regular day, between dorm, class, eating, and hanging with Bri (and Luke, the latest development in our posse, a.k.a Bri’s new boyfriend).
  4. fidelity
    the quality of being faithful
    Like the Central District, large screens hang outside the windows of storefronts; Benevolence, Duty, Fidelity appear and disappear on them.
  5. callous
    a skin area that is thick or hard from continual pressure
    Whispering a spell, she swivels one frail hand over another, her fingers calloused and stubby from years in the mines.
  6. filigree
    delicate and intricate ornamentation
    Gold filigree is woven into a headpiece resting on my hair like a crown.
  7. sprawling
    spreading out in different directions
    Sprawling trees from the edge of Bri's street peek at me from up ahead.
  8. quaint
    strange in an interesting or pleasing way
    Bri’s home is as quaint as it was the last time I was here, but the concrete walls never quite put me at ease. Where are the pictures? Doodles her little brothers make? Or prizes from school contests she won? Do they even do that here?
  9. ordeal
    a severe or trying experience
    The ordeal at Dezignz flashes in my memory and I feel sick all over again.
  10. billow
    rise and move, as in waves
    Fields of thin golden grass billow like fine hairs in wind.
  11. foliage
    the collective amount of leaves of one or more plants
    There’s so much foliage in odd shapes and sizes like I’ve never seen. I assumed it’d be all dry mountainous desert. I had no idea there was lush life out here.
  12. frumpy
    drab, old-fashioned, and unattractive
    He's this frumpy, pot-bellied guy with an angry mug and very little hair on his head.
  13. bearing
    (usually plural) a person's awareness of self
    Aasim reaches to steady me and I use his arm to get my bearings.
  14. reverberate
    ring or echo with sound
    The General's voice reverberates down the cave.
  15. muster
    summon up, call forth, or bring together
    I push the stone wall with every bit of strength I can muster.
  16. solemn
    dignified and somber in manner or character
    He doesn't say anything, just nods, a solemn look in his eye.
  17. infuse
    fill, as with a certain quality
    Like it's not weird for people to be walking around Ghizon, even if it is in a mountain, floating platters, making flames, growing flowers—without onyx infused with the Chancellor's magic.
  18. revelry
    unrestrained merrymaking
    The revelry and thump of the drums outside have faded and only scraps of streamers and confetti remain.
  19. conduit
    a passage through which water or electric wires can pass
    Onyx mined from Yiyo. It's a great conduit for the magic. It binds really well to it, we've found.
  20. fervor
    feelings of great warmth and intensity
    "To mind my work with fervor and allegiance.”
  21. unyielding
    stubbornly unwilling to give in
    "And we are unyieldingly...loyal."
  22. initiate
    set in motion, start an event or prepare the way for
    "Tech, you may initiate the bond."
  23. oblivion
    the state of being disregarded or forgotten
    I've been sticking to the two dishes I halfway recognize: a potato looking thing stuffed with what I keep telling myself is cheese, and a dark meat that looks like fish but has a Mongolian beef chewiness to it. Bri tried to explain what meat it is, but I really just need to live in my taste bud oblivion, right now.
  24. tangent
    a message that departs from the main subject
    I don't know if she's talking to herself or me. Bri does that, gets off on brainiac tangents.
  25. imbue
    give qualities or abilities to; endow
    RESTRICTION: Imbuing, specifically depositing or storing one's magic into inanimate objects without express written consent from the Chancellor, is strictly prohibited.
  26. manifestation
    an indication of the existence of some person or thing
    His discovery of how to alter the physical manifestation of magic into fire and electrically charged energy, like man-made lightening, is the single greatest advancement of our time and an invaluable asset to Ghizoni law enforcement.
  27. tangible
    perceptible by the senses, especially the sense of touch
    Thanks to Jon’ye, the “feey’l” spell can conjure spheres of tangible energy or give your fingertips flames—a great convenience for practical tasks such as cooking, space heating, seasonal decor; and even more broad benefits such as self-defense, late night travel, and illuminating mass spaces.
  28. vicinity
    a surrounding or nearby region
    Do not attempt new spells in the vicinity of precious objects.
  29. forge
    make something, usually for a specific function
    He had said two cuffs, a pair, were forged by the village Elders.
  30. expend
    use up or consume fully
    One thing's for sure, as much magic as he expends imbuing onyx on Designation Days, he has to be refilling it somehow.
  31. procession
    the action of a group moving ahead in regular formation
    Our procession deeper into the cave halts and Bati has a far-off look.
  32. crafty
    marked by skill in deception
    We had peace, trade even, with the other tribes for a time. Until one day the Chancellor showed up from the Moyechi tribe, known for their craftiness and ambition, saying he'd grown up hearing about our majestic people and wanted to see us himself.
  33. stifle
    smother or suppress
    He could see the Sickness was eating our people away from the inside, stifling our magic, like a poison in our blood.
  34. fester
    gnaw into; make resentful or angry
    I overheard my father tell my mother that very night how the Chancellor's eyes glittered with dark ambition, the kind that festers like rot in the bones.
  35. smattering
    a small number or amount
    The smattering that did make it here used the remnants of magic they had left to enchant that wall you passed through.
  36. naive
    marked by or showing unaffected simplicity
    "He started showing people what he could do with the black stones fused to his wrists, telling them to follow him and he would share. Our people were taken with sudden Sickness, dying out, and coincidentally he's full of magic to give? Pfft. I'm not naive. That is no coincidence."
  37. tome
    a large and scholarly book
    The walls of the room are covered in shelves on one side, lined with tomes with spines inlaid with gold.
  38. incantation
    a ritual reciting of words believed to have a magical effect
    The spell book we got in training was pencil thin. There were more pages of instructions and restrictions than actual incantations. How much does the Chancellor even know about the magic he stole?
  39. fathom
    come to understand
    “I can't even fathom the unshakable power these things have.”
  40. writhe
    move in a twisting or contorted motion
    The patterns coil and shift again, writhing like they're agitated, unsettled.
Created on Sun Jan 30 10:39:17 EST 2022 (updated Fri Feb 04 09:37:32 EST 2022)

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