“Easy,” Reid said confidently.
Ava giggled, then placed something upon my head. I shivered and reached up to feel a crown of ice and metal. It was heavy and solid. It seemed that combined with our magic, the Elves could create stronger illusions.
“This is great,” I remarked. “Simultension seems easy for Elves.”
“I’ve never done magic so seamlessly before,” Felicity said.
“Then let’s give everyone a shot,” I offered. “Split into groups.”
The Elves seemed excited, because they rushed into action. Ava and I walked around to observe, and she described to me what each team was doing.
“Ooh.” She sounded impressed. “Chancey used his angel light, and Soleil formed it into the shape of a halo.”
I snorted. “If angels come with halos, Chancey lost his ages ago.”
Ava hummed as we continued around the room. She stopped dead in her tracks and grabbed my arm. Something whizzed by me, and acrashsounded.
“My favorite table!” Ivy cried.
What are you complaining about?Oberi cracked.You’ve broken enough tables banging on them.
I tried to hide my laughter. I mean, Oberi wasn’twrong.
“Alistair, please,” Ava scolded. “Can we go easy on the battle orbs? It’s practically filling the whole room.”
“But that was impressive!” Alistair protested. “I’ve never created one so big.”
“That’s the beauty of simultension,” I told him. “But you may not want to blow us all up in the process.”
Alistair groaned, like I was being unfair. I just shook my head.
A screech tore through the room so loud that it made my head vibrate. I threw my hands over my ears, and the screaming stopped.
“Sorry!” Opal called. “Sorry, guys. It won’t happen again.”
I winced as the ringing in my ears faded. “What’d she do?”
“Opal and Andrea created a foghorn that used Opal’s siren scream,” Ava explained. “Thank the ancestors it wasn’t stronger, or we’d be sitting under a pile of rubble.”
“Yeah, we’re going to have to set some safety rules,” I said. “But I want them to learn how to defend themselves, so experimenting is a good thing.”
“Wow! Arealshield!” Ez cried. “How’d you do that, Alistair?”
“Magic, my friend,” Alistair said proudly.
“Lorie made a really beautiful shield illusion,” Ava told me. “Alistair combined his shield magic, and it became a solid sheet of metal.”
My shoulders sagged in relief. For the first time, all the Elves were using magic. It was incredible.
We practiced for hours, until Alistair and Eddie started sparring against Chancey and Reid. A rogue battle orb nearly fried Oberi’s tail. Ivy squealed and ducked behind the bar.
How dare you!?Oberi growled.I just fluffed that this morning!
“Calm down, Oberi,” I insisted. “Guys, I think it’s time to wrap it up. We’ve been gone for a while, and we’ve made good progress.”
I was actually starting to believe the Elves would be able to escape the Institute soon if we kept this up.
“Plus, Oberi’s getting pissed,” Ava teased.
