“Okay, Sylara, what are we really doing here?” I ask, trying to focus. “I doubt you brought me to the pier just to eat ice cream. Not that I'm complaining, huh? But it's weird.”
The elf points with her chin toward an old abandoned warehouse at the end of the pier.
“You need to practice your magic in a controlled environment,” she explains. “That place has been empty for years. It's discreet, and it's isolated enough so you can experiment without fear of hurting anyone.”
The building is an imposing structure of rusted metal and broken glass. Possibly, the elf is right, and it's been abandoned for decades. However, when she pushes the door, it opens without the slightest creak.
“Do you come here often?” I ask, noticing that the interior, though dusty, is relatively clear, as if someone cleaned it from time to time.
“Sometimes,” she admits. “It's a good place to practice earth magic without attracting attention. It's harder to do it in the city than in the forest, you know?”
I just nod while observing the old warehouse. It's enormous, with a high ceiling from which old industrial lamps hang. Light filters through dirty windows, creating strange patterns of shadows on the cracked cement floor. Between the cracks, small plants struggle to survive.
“Well,” the elf announces, taking off her jacket and leaving it impeccably folded on a box. “Let's begin.”
“Begin with what exactly?”
“Basic defense,” she responds, and unexpectedly, throws a handful of dirt at my face.
Instinctively, I raise my hands and a gust of wind deflects it, sending it back toward Sylara, who dodges it with elegance.
“Good reflexes,” she admits. “But too instinctive. You need to learn to channel your power consciously, not just when you feel threatened.”
For the next hour, she guides me through basic control exercises: how to feel the air around me, how to direct it with precision, or create small currents to deflect objects. It's frustrating at first, though little by little I begin to understand the logic behind each gesture.
“Air responds to your emotions,” she explains, while watching me create a small sphere of compressed air. “It's your ally, not your servant. You have to learn to flow with it, not dominate it.”
She's remained completely still again, and I think I'm starting to understand. Elves listen with their whole body.
“You sound like that book,” I protest, letting the sphere dissipate. “All that philosophical stuff about flowing with the element instead of controlling it.”
“Because it's the truth,” she sighs, and the smile she gives me next makes my heart skip several beats. “The most powerful elementals are those who understand that their power isn't really theirs, but of the element they channel.”
I roll my eyes while shaking my head.
“Very poetic and all, but I prefer practical results.”
“Like this?”
Before I can react, small vines sprout from the cracked ground, snaking toward my ankles.
Maybe under normal conditions I would have had time to react. But those vines... shit, they remind me too much of the dream. The sensation of being held by the wrists, immobilized, while Sylara positioned herself on top of me and...
I shake my head. No. I'm not going to think about that now.
“That's cheating!” I sigh, no longer offering any resistance as the plants hold me against the ground.
Sylara looks at me while I'm lying down and now held by feet and hands by the vines, and instinctively bites her lower lip. Shit, I wonder if she's also had a dream similar to mine.
“In a real fight, there are no rules,” she responds, shaking her head as if wanting to remove from her mind some thought she shouldn't be having.
As soon as she releases me, I launch myself toward her, using the air to propel myself. The elf seems surprised by a frontal attack, though she recovers quickly. New vines emerge from the ground and try to trap me, but I dodge them with a series of movements I never thought I could execute.
Soon, we face each other in a strange dance. She manipulates earth and plants, I dodge and counterattack with gusts of wind. At one point, she takes me down and positions herself on top of me, immobilizing me.
Our lips remain inches apart. I can feel her breath, smell her scent. Her eyes lock onto mine and, for an instant, I'm sure I see in them the same desire I saw in my dream.
But in that instant of distraction, I feel something wrapping around my wrists and ankles. Before I can react, I find myself again completely immobilized by vines that have grown at an impossible speed.
