“Well, our lessons may be severely cut back soon enough,” Sehra said gravely.
“What? Why?” Vi leaned forward in her chair. Sehra had seemed so determined to teach her at the start. Now, only a few months in, she was already cutting back their lessons?
“Between the solstice and the construction of the infirmary, along with the spread of the White Death, my attentions are needed elsewhere.” Sehra ran her fingers along her lips thoughtfully, as if debating her next words. “No… not merely that. I am already seeing you progress beyond what I can teach, princess.”
“That’s not true,” Vi whispered. “I still have so much to learn.”
“But I only have so much I can teach.”
“You told me you would help me control my magic.” Her voice rose slightly.
“Foremost, I told you I would teach you all I know of the power of Yargen… which I have. Between the fundamentals and the tome you have been pouring over, you know as much as I do. No, more than I, for you can read the glyphs and I cannot.”
Vi swallowed air down a dry throat. This couldn’t be right. There was so much more to this magic, so much she didn’t understand.
“But… my fire, at the capital they will expect… I need to masquerade as a Firebearer.”
“Do you think you cannot control your magic?”
“I…” She thought of the small motes of flame she had conjured from time to time, reminding herself that she was gaining more control. “Not well enough.”
“I doubt that.” Sehra stood. “Come.”
Vi couldn’t do anything but follow. Leaving everything behind, they walked down to the back edge of the castle. Vi hadn’t ventured down this way since her lessons with Jax had ended in favor of her tutelage under Sehra.
“Leave,” Sehra commanded. The warriors heeded their Chieftain, but Vi heard them grumbling. Sehra must have as well, but she led by example in ignoring them, moving once they had the area to themselves. She pointed to the nearest stone pit. “Vi, down you go.”
As Vi descended, Sehra stood on the upper edge of the ring, held out her palm, and the nearest tree branch arched unnaturally down, as if trying to shake her hand. Vi watched as the Chieftain broke off a few smaller sticks and sent the branch back on its way. She tossed one nonchalantly into the pit. The stick landed unassumingly in a small puff of dirt.
“Set it on fire withjuth.”
“Juth.” As Vi repeated the word, the symbol appeared to her with perfect clarity, her hours pouring over the tome paying off. After practicing so much withdurroeand the subtle vibrations that word left behind, this was like the crackling of a coming storm just beneath her skin. Vi had ignored it from the start; this was the one word she didn’t want to embrace. “To destroy. I think that’s the last thing I need. All I want is to make sure my firedoesn’tdestroy things.”
“Perhaps the best way to ensure that you do not reap destruction accidentally is by learning how to destroy things intentionally?”
Vi stared at the stick. She’d never felt so daunted by something so harmless as a twig.
“If you wanted a simple fire, I could summon one.” Before Sehra could speak, a thought occurred to her. Vi’s head jerked upright. “How can I make fire without words?”
“It is what I explained to you foremost… Your first relationship with your magic was with the understanding of a Firebearer. On some level, we learn magic the way we learn anything else—by imitation. Everyone expected you to be a Firebearer, demonstrated it for you...so your malleable magic did its best to imitate what it saw.
“For small feats, it is only natural that you can channel the magic to use it in that way,” Sehra said in a manner that assured Vi she spoke from experience—though with Groundbreaking, Vi would assume. “But could you create an illusion as a Firebearer?”
“No Firebearer can.” That was squarely a Waterrunner skill.
“Do you feel confident creating a large fire you could control with those methods you use to make a spark?”
“No…” The small sparks in her palms were one thing. But the only way she managed to control any large amount of magic—like the fire against the diseased noru—was by looking at her magic as light.
“Then destroy it withjuth.”
Vi stared at the stick, sliding out her feet to hip-width as though she was facing off against an invisible opponent. Lifting one hand in the air, the symbols attached tojuthwere already swirling in her mind.
She allowed the glyph to encompass all her thoughts. It pushed aside Jax’s former tutelage—the instincts she’d had drilled into her for years about how to summon fire. She was not making fire—she was making a channel of light that wouldbecomefire.
Vi’s eyes dipped closed as she tried to imagine the power seeping forth from her fingers, spinning from a white-hot invisible spool deep within her. It didn’t radiate off her skin without focus. It was like a candle-wick, ready to burn.
“Juth.” Vi’s voice went low with dangerous intent.
