“Thanks.” I looked at my lovers. “I'll meet you back upstairs.”
“No, you won't, Sparky,” Fire said. “We're starting your training. Right now.”
“Leave the Ladrin,” Earth added. “It will be fine. He came to speak to you. He will try again.”
“Yes, but I should talk to him as soon as possible,” I said. “And can all of you not spy on me, please?”
“We are everywhere,” Air said. “Do you wish to breathe?”
I grimaced. “Don't give me that shit. Air is everywhere. You are a consciousness and can flow wherever you want. Or not flow.”
Fire snorted, then said, “He got us.”
“You still need to train,” Water said. “We should start now.”
“They're right,” Taroc said. “Vex can wait. We need to get you stronger right now.”
“I'm glad you feel that way,” Air said. “Because all of you will be training along with Ember.”
“Excuse me?” Kel asked.
“We have to unite to empower him,” Rath said.
“Exactly,” Air said. “Now, where shall we train?”
“And who will play the part of Aranren?” Earth asked.
“Not me,” Gray said as he ran off.
“It must be one of you,” Air said to my lovers. “Ember needs to practice caging magic with someone he shares a bond with. It won't be exactly as it will with Death, but if he can separate someone from Spirit and remove—”
“Whoa!” Xae slashed his hand down. “Do not say that you want him to remove Spirit from one of us.”
“Well, Spirit is the counter to Death. It would be the best thing for Ember to practice on.”
“Removing the Goddess's Spirit Magic from a wraith lord is a bad idea,” Rath said. “It could kill us.”
“I'm not taking that risk,” I said. “Not for all of Varr. End of conversation.”
“You need to practice this,” Water urged. “If you want to save Aranren's life, you have to know the intricacies of separating magic from its host.”
“So, I'll separate one of them from an elemental magic,” I said.
“That might not be similar enough to help,” Earth said.
“But then again, it might be,” Water added. “And it would be far less risky.”
“Only if we use you, Lord Ratharin,” Air said. “You were born with all of our magic inside you. If Ember separates you from one, it won't be as traumatic as it would if he took Fire from Lord Taroc or Earth from Lord Keltyr.”
“Very well.” Rath grimaced, but when he looked my way, his expression softened. “I will be Aranren for you.”
Chapter Twenty
“I will be Aranren for you.”Rath's words kept circling my mind as we set up for my first training session.
We'd chosen the meadow in the nearby forest where I'd conducted my previous training. Sure, we could have used the training yard, but I didn't want the added pressure of the other lords watching me. General Ranor decided to join us. But one gawker was better than hundreds.
First, I had to look through the Elements. This entailed summoning each one and looking around at things with its metaphysical eyes—seeing things from its perspective. It's harder than it sounds. I'd done it before when I was first trained by the Emperor's mages. But Air was right—doing it with a deeper understanding of the Elements helped. Not only that. I summoned them with the intention of understanding them even more. They came willingly and showed me things I had never noticed. Perspective is everything.
