After breakfast, I’m standing in the training grounds, facing Valen. The field is empty except for us.
“We’ll focus on each element separately until you are comfortable wielding each one,” he says. “Magics is not just power—it is choice. Control. Allowance. Understanding.”
I nod, absorbing his words.
“Today, we begin with Earth.”
I shift my weight slightly, feeling the ground solid beneath my boots. But before we start, hesitation tugs at my chest.
“Valen . . . something happened last night.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Go on.”
Taking a steady breath, I turn my back to him and lift my shirt just enough to expose the markings along my spine. The air hits cold against my skin.
Valen is silent. Too silent.
I can’t see his expression, but I feel the intensity of his gaze as he takes in the markings. I brace myself for shock, for doubt, for questions I don’t have answers to.
Instead, he steps closer, not touching, but close enough that I feel the shift in the air between us.
“I have never seen such a thing,” he says at last. His voice low. Thoughtful. “But the world is vast. And there is always more to learn.”
I release a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.
“This would make sense with what the prophecies say . . . ” he continues, his voice even, unwavering, “and you are the proof. But these—without a dragon . . . ” He trails off. And leaves the rest unsaid.
The tension in my chest loosens, just a little.
Valen steps back. “Come,” he says. “Let us see what the earth will teach you today.”
I pull my shirt back down. Whatever I am . . . whatever these markings mean . . . Iwillfind out.
I nod, flexing my fingers at my sides.
Earth is supposed to be the simplest, the most stable. I’ve worked with it before, but only in small ways—loosening soil for crops, shifting pebbles, nothing like what Valen is about to ask of me.
He gestures to the open ground before us.
“You’ve moved dirt before, yes. But that’s not the same as wielding Earth.” He steps forward, planting his foot into the ground. “The land is not something you command—it’s something you lean into.”
I blow out a breath, trying to absorb his words.
“Close your eyes.”
I hesitate.
He tilts his head. “You’re thinking too much again.”
I scowl, but obey. The world goes dark behind my eyelids. I focus on my breathing. On the feel of the ground beneath me.
“Earth is not light like Air,” Valen says. “It is not fluid like Water. It does not burn like Fire. It is weight, it is presence. It is the foundation beneath your feet.”
He steps around me. I hear the faint sound of his bootsagainst the soil.
“Feel it. Reach for it. Not like you did in the village, not like the simple shifting of soil. Deeper. Further.”
I lower my stance, pressing my palm against the dirt.
