“It would appear so.”
“It’s oddly comforting to know that I’m not alone in that—even if that’s a selfish thought,” I said, my gaze turning down.
“After what you’ve been through, I think you’re allowed to be a little selfish,don’t you?”
Returning my gaze to his, I offered him a weak smile. “Thank you for sharing this secret with me.”
“Does it help?” the commander asked. “Knowing one of my secrets, I mean.”
“Yeah, actually. It does.”
“Good.” He nodded, that warm sternness settling on his features before he said, “Now, onto the information that really matters. I think I know why you haven’t been able to conjure elemental magic, and more importantly, I know how to fix it.”
Chapter 32
The Mother’s Threads
“So, you believe that when I go to conjure elemental magic, I try to create it as if I’m willing my arcane magic to create the element from scratch?” I asked after Artton took the time to explain what he’d felt in the visions when I tried to conjure magic—as a human and fae.
“That’s correct.”
“And I don’t have to do that because the Mother has already done it for me?” I asked, brows creased.
“In a matter of speaking, yes. When the Celestial Court formed with Lumnara, only arcane magic was used. But as the magic began to form our planet, the Mother was also born, and so were her powers—even more so when the seasonal courts were formed. You see, arcane magic stays in its raw form until it’s transformed through unfathomable power into core elements, but once those elements are formed, there’s no need to recreate them.”
“Fascinating,” I mused, my world view shifting slightly. “I guess I always sawthe elementsas seasonal, not in their raw form. Like, obviously it’s drier in summer, so the Summer Court doesn’t have access to water. No rain,no water.”
Artton smiled at that. “It’s actually a very common misconception, and wildly misunderstood. The courts are prideful and would have you believing the validity of your thought process, but we can never forget that at one point weallhad access to the four elements. The Spring Court actually holds to the truth more than any other. They believe it’s sacrilegious to give credit to the courts and not the Mother—no other court honors her with as much reverence. It was the depth of their elemental knowledge that made me choose the Spring Court for boarding school instead of staying closer to home.”
This was honestly one of the coolest things I’d learned about the courts to-date. Not only because I was finally beginning to understand how magic truly worked, but because it painted such a rich tapestry ofwhothe fae were.
“Were you interested in studying elemental magic because you can wield all four?”
“Originally, no. Fire didn’t manifest for me until after I’d graduated and began training to become a commander. Unsurprisingly, I just took to magic so well that I craved a depth of knowledge that I knew I’d only get in the Spring Court,” he said.
“I still don’t understand why that knowledge was so important to you. How it helps.”
His weight shifted from one side to the other. The movement was almost imperceptible, but I had the feeling I’d learn it as one of his tells—like how Kaelun grabbed at the base of his neck, or Caius steepled his fingers.
“One of my first memories was a reoccurring dream about becoming a great general. It was all I ever thought of—drove my parents mad.” He let out an almost self-deprecating laugh at the distant memory. “The thing is, Spark, I wanted to be the strongest commander in every way, including magically.”
Confused as to how studying in the Spring Court could offer him that, I said, “There’s no way the Spring Court teaches fae how to be more powerful, is there?”
“No, there isn’t. But as cliché as it sounds, knowledgeispower—just depends on how you want to use it.”
“Okay…” I said, eyeing him.
“Follow me here, because I think it’s very important that you understand this concept as well as I do. That will take time, of course, but I’ll break it down in its simplest terms to start, okay?”
I nodded slowly, still not convinced.
“You can conjure sparks, yes?”
I nodded.
“Show me.”
Raising an arm comfortably between us, I snapped my fingers, and a litany of white embers appeared, lazily floating in the air above my hand.
