an excerpt from the telesa book, Daniel, extract, fiction, lani wendt young, Samoa author, samoa writer, Telesa Trilogy, when water burns

"When Water Burns": Telesa Vasa Loloa

Lani Young
That’s when the world changed. Irrevocably.

 The banded sleeve that marched up his arm and spread over his shoulder. The fire tattoo with my name imprinted at its heart. All of Daniel’s tattoos began to burn, to light up with eerie blue glow.

 “Daniel?” The urgency of my voice had him raising his head to look at me questioningly.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

As he straightened up, I caught my breath, eyes widened as I stared at his body. All his tattoos, all of them were glowing with the same blue fire. Through the rippling water I could clearly see the markings of his pe’a, even the patterns on his lower leg, shimmering with iridescent blue. “Your tattoos, what’s happening to them?”

He held up his arms and looked at them in astonishment. “I don’t know.”

As we both stared wide-eyed, the water around us began to bubble and swirl as if a mini tornado was building up. Fear caught at me as it always did when I was in water, away from my power source. The earth that gave me fearlessness and unbridled power. “Let’s get out of here.” I slipped off the rock shelf, into the water, stumbling over rocks as I moved towards the poolside, to the safety of the rocks beside it. But he didn’t follow me. Instead he stood there in the center of the pool, raising his hands in wonder, regarding his glowing blue markings. I spoke his name sharply, but it was as if he did not hear me. “Daniel!”

The pool was now a raging broiling mass of white as the water churned and in its heart, stood Daniel. He smiled. But not at me. At the water around him. As tendrils of liquid began to rise from the churning surface, snaking its way around his body, along his outstretched arms, silver ribbons of mercury. Ripples of glass. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The pool  heaved with some unseen force and the water lifted like a platform of white surf, lifting Daniel with it so that he stood a few meters off the surface.

I screamed his name and this time he turned his head to look at me. But it wasn’t Daniel. Not the Daniel I knew. Not the Daniel I loved. His eyes glowed with the same blue light as that which highlighted his every tattoo and ropes of water were coiled around his arm. The arms that had held me, carried me. He raised the hands that had caressed me, that had traced the outline of my face with love and shook them, as if trying to loosen the ropes. They responded to his motions and from that slight impatient shake of his hands, a whip-like wire of pure water, lashed the surface of the pool, reaching to the earth on which I stood, lashing it with deadly force, ripping up rocks and plants as it scythed along the ground only inches from where I stood. I was too stunned to move and shattered fragments of rock, sprayed against my face. If there was pain , I didn’t feel it. I just stood and stared at the one I loved. 

Telesa vasa loloa.

Published by Lani Young

Lani Young is an international bestselling author of YA fantasy, contemporary romance and literary fiction. The 2018 Pacific Laureate, her work is inspired by the diverse mythology of Oceania and the richness of her cultural heritage as a Samoan / Maori woman.

32 thoughts on “"When Water Burns": Telesa Vasa Loloa”

  6. Too awesome. I can't wait for the movie to come out 😉 Can I start telling people I know you now so they'll believe me later on???

  7. A'e se Lani!!!too much to handle!!I am half way through Telesa and it is like a movie playing in my own mind!!I love it!!Thank you am ready for the next one 🙂 Lina

  9. Oi aue. Is March here yet? Lol. I can see my husband saying, "you are always on ur phone" whilst reading till 5am or maybe never sleeping till i cant read no more. Cant wait:)

  14. Aw i love it, i am so excited for the 2nd book. Fell in love with the 1st and am dying to read the next. Your an amazing writer ! Your words just get me so entranced and i lose myself and lose all connection to the world when I'm reading about Leila and her powers and now Daniels! Goodness gracious, I'll be grabbing the next book as soon as I'm able to 🙂 God Bless Lani

  15. Thank you so much for the positive feedback! Once the Auck Telesa launch is finished and the Xmas madness is all done with – I shall be hitting Book2 with a vengeance….

  18. OMG….i agree…im sooooo xcited to read the next book, and hopefully when the trilogies are done, ooohhh movie next lol…love lani, keep em comin, but ugh the suspense is soooo killing me..hehe

  21. Now I wished Apia skipped the months instead of days…you know January, MARCH, April…so we can get the new Telesa vasa loloa…cause I need a fix after reading Telesa-COvenant Keeper…AWESOME….MORE MORE MORE!!!!!

  22. OMG i have SOO much questions building up after reading the first book, and am now DROOLING over this new addition…….GOODNESS GRACIOUS… *recap w/ fouina as she explains the weirdness of their attraction. I totally knew it! BUT I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS that need answers!!! #dying I love this book, but i must admit – i cried for nafanua! Vasaloa will be AWESOME

  26. I'm so in love with, this book , cant wait for the second one to come out 🙂 wen is it coming out??? lol anyways good job lani love the book , and LOVE DANIEL 😉 hehehehehehe , x

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