What am Inotholding onto?
My parents. Doubt. Fear that I’ll fail them. That I’ll faileveryone. That I already am.
“You’re treating it like stone,” Valen says, stepping beside me. “Like something you can hold, something that will stay in place.”
I press my lips together. “That’s all I’ve ever known.”
He nods once. “And that is why this will take time.”
I exhale, frustration brimming. “And if wedon’thave time?”
Valen’s gaze doesn’t shift. “Then you learn faster.”
I bite the inside of my cheek, focusing once more.
Water moves. Always.
The great rivers of the Water Clan’s domain carve through canyons, moving with unshakable patience. The tides that border the southern coasts rise and fall with the pull of the moon, predictable yet unstoppable. The lakes that dot the mountain ranges shift with the wind, restless but alive.
It never stops. It never waits.It doesn’t want to be commanded.
But it might be willing to listen.
I let go. And I reach—not for control. Forconnection.
A shift. A pull. Not strong. Not solid. But present.Water is answering.
I exhale slowly, and this time, I follow its pull. The lake stirs, a small section of water rising from the surface.
I can feel the weight of it. The tension. The way it wants to fall.
But it doesn’t.
It stays.
I feel its weight, its movement, its natural inclination to fall back toward the lake—but I hold it. I shift my hand, and the water responds. It twists between my fingers, a ribbon of motion.
I let it move, let it flow where it wants—but I guide it. For the first time, I’m not chasing after the element. I’m moving with it.
A small smile tugs at the edge of my lips.
Valen watches, his expression unreadable. “Good,” he says. “Again.” He tilts his chin toward the lake. “Hold more this time. Half the lake. Shape it into a form.”
I blink. “Half?”
He doesn’t elaborate. I inhale deeply and reach.
The response is immediate. The pull is deeper. Stronger. The lakesurges. Water rises in a massive wave, the pressure hitting me like a wall. I grit my teeth, trying to contain it, shape it, but it’s too much. It’s heavy. Crushing.
The force of it bears down on my chest, pressing against my ribs, weighing down my limbs.
I’m standing on land, but it doesn’t feel like it. It feels like I’m at the bottom of the lake, the water closing in around me, swallowing me whole. Sweat beads along my brow.
The shape I was forming begins to waver, tremble. The water wants to collapse, to fall back to where it belongs.
“Breathe,” Valen says, stepping closer. His voice is calm, steady, but it cuts through the pressure pressing into me. “Stop trying to control it.”
I bare my teeth, my arms shaking from the strain. “It’s—too heavy.” My voice is tight, strained. “I feel it pressing down on me. It’scrushing.”
