You extinguish all nonmagical flames within range. For several long seconds, the world falls completely dark and silent. Then, a single lantern appears beside you.
It hovers gently in the air, radiating warm golden light. The lantern slowly begins to rise toward the sky, trailing drifting runes and tiny embers behind it. As it ascends, more lanterns begin appearing. First dozens. Then hundreds. Then thousands.
Within moments, the heavens are filled with an endless sea of floating lights stretching far beyond sight. The lanterns drift upward like stars being reborn, illuminating clouds, mountains, oceans, forests, and cities beneath them in warm gold and amber hues. Each lantern is unique.
Some contain tiny drifting constellations. Others hold snowfall, oceans, flowers, fragments of songs, distant laughter, written memories, dancing silhouettes, or scenes from lives long forgotten. Creatures observing the lanterns often glimpse fleeting images that feel deeply personal to them, though no two creatures perceive the same visions. As the spell continues, faint music fills the air across the affected region. The sound resembles distant violins, quiet choirs, crackling hearthfires, soft wind through trees, and songs remembered from childhood but nearly forgotten.
The sky itself begins to change. Clouds dissolve into flowing rivers of light. Constellations shift slowly overhead. Trails of luminous runes stretch between lanterns like strands of woven starlight. At the height of the spell, the lanterns gather together high above the world and form a colossal celestial being visible for miles in every direction.
The exact form differs slightly each time the spell is cast:
- a dragon woven from stars and golden fire,
- a phoenix with wings spanning the horizon,
- a great whale swimming through the heavens,
- or another impossible creature shaped by memory, grief, and wonder.
Its body is formed entirely from drifting lanternlight, radiant mist, flowing runes, and countless moving memories. The creature moves silently through the night sky with impossible grace before slowly circling overhead.
Wherever its light passes:
- snowfall glitters like diamonds,
- rain becomes liquid gold,
- rivers reflect entire constellations,
- and shadows soften into warm twilight.
No heat, harm, or destructive force accompanies the spell. The lanterns pass harmlessly through all creatures and objects. The spell ends when the great celestial being slowly dissolves into countless lanterns once more. One by one, the lanterns extinguish and vanish into the night sky until only a single final lantern remains. That final lantern descends gently until it hovers before the caster for a brief moment. Then it too fades.
When the spell ends, ordinary flames reignite where they were extinguished, though many burn slightly warmer for several hours afterwards. Those who witness the spell often speak of it for the rest of their lives, though few can ever fully describe what they saw.
Many simply say:
“For a little while, the world remembered something beautiful.”
* - ((a lantern containing an eternal flame and a fragment of an object once carried by someone dearly loved, which the spell consumes))
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