Chapter 19 #2
“Lexie? I thought I felt you!” Finn rushed in and took my hand, spinning me around.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say Thalassa herself just walked out of the waves.
Careful, you may have sailors throwing themselves into the sea for you.
” I laughed at his silliness as he continued, “What are you doing here?”
I stopped short, not sure what exactly to tell him but also not sure why I was hesitating to tell him the truth. If anyone knew why Griff had been able to teleport to me through the wards, it would be Finn.
Before my hesitation could be noticed or commented upon, Griff jumped in and gave the same vague story he told his mother. Finn clearly knew parts were missing but also didn’t question it.
I stayed silent, moving to the doorway and leaning out the half door that was open to let in the sea breeze.
In front of me was a small deck with a few chairs.
I breathed deeply the smell of the ocean, mesmerized by the crashing of the waves on the beach.
It was so peaceful here. How could anyone leave?
“You want to fill me in here?” Finn’s voice was gentle.
“I assume you asked Griff.”
“I did. He continued with the same bullshit he spun earlier and then slammed his shield down. Care to enlighten me?”
I wasn’t sure why I was hesitating. There was no good reason except that it felt private. Just between me and Griff. But Griff and Finn didn’t have any secrets from each other, did they?
“I was just… lonely, I guess.”
There was a momentary pause before Finn either accepted it or decided to stop pushing. “Then you came to the right place! We can’t have you lonely on Ignistar!”
“Mam, while we’re here, would you mind working with Lexa on water wielding?
” Griff and Everly were over in the corner but I could still hear them.
I only halfway paid attention, still captured by the ocean.
The scent reminded me of Griff. Maybe he had spent so much time here that it just persisted wherever he went.
“That’s a great idea,” Finn said, clapping Griff on the back. “We’ve been working on the internal channels but have only just touched on the elemental ones.”
“Except fire,” I said ruefully, remembering the various explosions that I had caused.
“Let’s see what you can do,” Everly said.
She led me outside and toward the end of the dock. Motioning for me to sit, we sat cross-legged, right on the edge.
“Tell me what you know about water wielding,” Everly started.
“Not much,” I admitted. “I’ve only really felt an affinity for fire. Although back home, I would have said I felt the earth.”
“Elemental wielding is driven by emotion,” she explained.
“Fire is fueled by some of the strongest emotions: anger, lust, love. Water is the opposite—it’s calm and collected.
Water always seeks balance and serenity.
It would rather flow around obstacles than burst through them as fire would.
When you approach your water channel with anger and frustration, it will rebel against you.
It becomes choppy, unpredictable, and impossible to control.
” She skimmed her hand through the gentle waves at her side.
“But when you’re at peace, water is at peace.
It’s able and willing to do your bidding.
Earth and air are also opposites. You rarely see people with the opposites, and for you to have all of them is a strange contradiction. ”
I smiled wryly. Strange contradiction summed me up.
“Depending on the combination of someone’s channels, they can do different things. For example, with water and body, you could control someone’s blood as a healer, or a warrior.”
She settled her shoulders into a relaxed position as she waved her hand gently over the ocean, as if she was beckoning for it to come play.
There was a faint shimmer of power before the water leapt in a great wave to greet her—not violent and crashing, but a graceful spiral that she twisted into shapes with flicks of her fingers.
First a bird in flight, then a blooming flower.
Finally, it shifted into a couple, dancing together.
It looked oddly like my dance with Griff last night.
I felt myself begin to blush at the memory.
“Water wielding is all about partnership,” she said softly, never taking her eyes off the rotating figures.
“Water is curious but it prefers harmony above all. Forcing it breaks that harmony. But invite it in…” The water burst into a fountain of droplets that glittered in the sun while hanging suspended, before gently returning to the ocean without a single splash.
“Water teaches us that with the gentlest touch can come the strongest power.” She gestured for me to try.
I wasn’t so sure about that, given that my current way of using my power tended to be more abrupt, but it was probably time to try some finesse.
Closing my eyes, I mimicked her motion, and reached down to access that part of me where I knew the water channel resided.
I tried to separate out a strand, but that channel was woven tightly together.
Dragging it out, I pulled it upward and directed it at the water, asking it to rise to my hand.
And then I spluttered as a wave crested up and crashed over me. My eyes shot open and I stared at Everly, who was trying very hard not to laugh.
She waved her hand at me and I was dry again, if a little crusty. “You need to control it with calm, and a little less power,” was the only thing she said.
Calm? That was impossible these days. And less power? I thought that had been a tiny amount I drew up. I raised my eyes to the heavens in frustration.
She burst out laughing. “I apologize, but your expression…” She stifled her laughter. “You were fighting with it. Water responds to invitations, not commands. Ask it to dance with you, don’t demand it.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. The last time I asked something, someone, to dance, it did not end with me being calm and collected. Looking down into myself again, I imagined settling the whirling well of power, like a cozy blanket being thrown over it.
I can do this.
I reached my hand out over the waves and sent a request through the channel.
It heard and answered. The water curved up my arm and spun around my hand.
I gasped, not from the cold but a sensation of tranquility.
The water felt peaceful, content to move in harmony with me.
It settled around my fingers, like a layer of silk, and for the first time in weeks, my thoughts quieted.
I realized this was the first time any of my channels had felt…
happy. Fire constantly crackled with barely contained fury.
Earth trembled with protective strength.
But this? Water reminded me of something I’d forgotten could exist.
Peace.
“So what exactly is happening between you and my son?”
The words shattered the fragile calm I had constructed, replacing it instantly with a rush of panic and embarrassment. The nice, gentle wave immediately turned violent as it surged upward. This time, it drenched both of us.
I felt my cheeks burn as the seawater dripped off me.
So much for peace.
Everly calmly dried both of us again. “It seems you need to practice keeping your calm and control when confronted with obstacles,” she said mildly, although I saw a glint of mischief in her eyes.
I gritted my teeth and tried for a third time, fighting to recapture any sense of serenity. Had Griff said something to her?
The water, sensing my agitation, remained choppy beneath my hand. I pleaded silently for it to work with me. I had barely gotten it to raise to my hand when she spoke again.
“If it helps, he likes you too.”
Relief flooded through me, and the water responded, smoothing into a calm ripple that crested toward my hand. It performed a little motion, as if it was waving, before I gently released it back into the ocean.
And then it occurred to me. She had meant Griff, right?
It was one of the best days I’d had in a long time—even with Everly drilling me over and over again with the water channel.
And her confusing comments. I was starting to realize where the twins had gotten their taskmaster mentalities.
But the more I experienced their family interactions, the more I wished I was part of their family.
Both Griff and Finn had an easiness with their mother that I envied.
She was the perfect mixture of teasing, comforting, and stern when it called for it.
She adopted me into the mix as if I had always been there.
She taught me about the various activities that Maraleth did to celebrate Ignistar.
The celebrations weren’t nearly as elaborate as they would be six months from now, for Merlaine, the midsummer celebration for the water goddess Voda.
The winter solstice was a quieter affair, spent with family rather than a rambunctious party that took over the entire town.
I had hope that I could convince the twins to bring me back here for Merlaine.
It sounded chaotic, but only in the best way.