Darkness in the Light #2
We moved on and did similar exercises with water (two small cups, trying to move water from one to the other), air (a cylindrical tube that would generate a vortex), and earth (a small pot full of soil and a grass seed that would grow), all of which ended with me not controlling the element.
Bramick had said having multiple elements was rare, but I couldn’t help but feel disappointed at not having another one.
“Don’t sweat it. Almost no one here has two elements. We just had to make sure we’re not neglecting some of your abilities by not testing for them. I don’t expect you to have another one.”
We kept going, and I flinched when he handed me the orb of lightning. I felt my heart rate pick up under my palm still pressed to my chest as we walked through the exercise, but I could not split the lone, tiny bolt, and I was relieved not to have that element in common with Aemilia.
“Last one is light, then we can jump back into practicing control with the fire.”
He had me hold a plain gray stone with a glowing white glythyr and went through the same internal thought process, this time imagining the box fading from existence as I pictured the stone in my hand doing the same.
When I opened my eyes, the stone remained, but the glythyr had turned black and was smoking.
“It did something!” Excitement was an understatement. “I know the rock didn’t disappear, but it changed. That means something, right?”
He stared at the rock in my palm as a crack grew down the center and expanded until it broke in two and the blackened glythyr faded out completely.
He looked deeply concerned before meeting my eyes.
“Does this mean I have the element of light?” I asked eagerly, ignoring the dark gloom that passed over his face.
“I don’t think so…” he said gravely. “That wasn’t light, that was… I don’t know what. Best we talk to Sevrin about this.”
Silence pressed in around us for several tense moments as we both looked at the broken stone.
The look on his face made it feel as though the two halves of the stone in my hand had dropped into my stomach, all excitement extinguished.
“Let’s focus the rest of the session on what we do know: fire.” He was trying to keep his composure, but I could tell he was shaken. That worried me.
For the rest of our time together, he gave me various tasks while holding the flicker in one hand.
But I couldn’t help but feel like my anti-light was an issue.
After successfully lighting a match, a torch, and an entire campfire of stacked wood, Bramick’s smile was back.
“You’re definitely a natural with fire. It’ll be no time before you’re casting all kinds of things without the flicker.”
My smile was back, too, but it was halfhearted.
I was both eager and dreading my time this afternoon with Sevrin, the Arcanum leader.
I couldn’t help but feel that whatever happened in my light trial was tied to the shadows I couldn’t control.
The smoke from the glythyr had felt familiar; I just hadn’t wanted to admit it.
Bramick walked me back to the main building and into a small room on the second floor where Kaelor was waiting for me.
“Naci,” he beamed.
“Buzzed Head,” I said back, earning me a heartfelt laugh.
Bramick saluted and left us in the cramped room, which was clearly a tiny classroom. There were a few small desks at the back, and one large desk at the front with a chalkboard behind it. Like the ones my teachers in Briarstead had used.
“So, how is day one going?”
I plastered on a smile, not letting the concerns of my elemental tests with Bramick show. “Great, I know how to burn shit now, so don’t piss me off,” I said jokingly.
He laughed and raised a hand as if to wave off the comment, and I noticed a glow on his palm, invisible if I closed my left eye but glowing white if I closed my right.
Interesting. I really hoped I could find answers to this double vision with the Arcanums.
“Alright…Dray asked me to make sure you had the full picture of not only this continent and the rebellion but also all of Caelia and how it all fits together, what’s at stake. Why we’re here.”
My ears perked up. This sounded as valuable as learning magic, so I hung on every word.
He drew five circles on the chalkboard without touching the chalk that was sitting on the desk. I supposed he was using light instead of chalk. Genius.
“These are the five continents.” They transformed on the board from plain circles into exact outlines of each continent, just as I’d seen on maps in school. As he listed off each name, they appeared on the board: Ashenholt, Elyndor, Calyxmoor, Fellendral, and Vydran.
“And the free islands? Caelithar?”
“Those aren’t known to actually exist. They’re merely rumors. No one has ever seen them or met anyone from them. No ships have ever come from them. They’re…wishful thinking.”
Something about that didn’t sit right with me, but I let Kaelor move on.
“You know all about the political warfare happening in Ashenholt, I assume?”