Page 89 of Heart of Night and Fire

Singular elemental magic is largely wielded by the non-Aazheri races—yakshi, rakshasa, vidyadhara, agni, merdeva, Niramaya healers, peri, etc. Their magic is limited to the boundaries of their kind and is performed through acts of the physical body or mind, such as the raising of hands, the flicking of fingers, or even the clucking of the tongue. Devakin power can be passed through singular elemental magic users, resulting in magic that is typically diluted from one’s ancestors.

The far more interesting and complex magic belongs to the Aazheri. Through the combined use of elemental anchors, Aazheri have the ability to wield spells. Most Aazheri possess a fire anchor at a minimum, but the more powerful the Aazheri, the more anchors they will be able to access. Low-level Aazheri may have two or three anchors, while the strongest have five and a connection to each of the elements.

Anchors appear in different forms and are unique to every Aazheri, though often similarities can be drawn in those of the same family lines. Some may construe anchors as points or shapes or something entirely different. Some access them through their head or heart or hands, but again, this quality remains unique to each Aazheri.

She stopped reading and considered Professor Dhawan’s words. At least now she really understood what the anchors meant. Rabin had told her to seek out her fire anchor the night he’d shown her how to light the flame in her hand.

Something fluttered in her chest, and Zarya closed her eyes, sure her anchor must reside in her heart where she’d noticed that initial spark. With her thoughts concentrated on fire, she held out her palm, and there—she felt it.

Fire, it whispered to her.

But did she have more anchors? With her eyes closed, she focused on the flickering light inside her, noticing how the fire anchor grew brighter the more she concentrated on its presence.

On instinct, Zarya imagined a breeze for air. For earth, the smell of fresh soil and blooming flowers. A trickle of water and the sensation of standing under a gentle rainfall.

She wasn’t sure what might represent spirit, but then she thought of Koura, and that had to be aligned with Niramaya. Healing and life.

She focused on each of the elements as her fire died and retreated into blackness.

With her face scrunched in concentration, she was trying to retrieve the fire anchor when a blinding light exploded inside her chest. She felt it split apart like a comet detonating, light flaring behind her eyelids.

After a moment, it subsided, and in its place hovered a glittering five-pointed star. It spun so fast its edges blurred to form a circle, and then it stopped, pausing for a moment, before it spun in the opposite direction.

Zarya gasped.

Fire. Water. Air. Earth. Spirit. Five. She had all five of them.

Hot tears stung her eyes, and in that moment, she finally became something more than the sum of her lonely existence. More than a girl who’d been imprisoned by the sea. More than she ever dreamed possible. From this day on, she was a part of something. Something big and wide and important. She wouldn’t allow anyone to ever make her feel small again.

She looked down to see that her little peri friends had grown bolder while she read, inching closer, lolling about in the grass at her feet.

Two performed a pantomime of falling in love, their gestures wild and their expressions gleeful as they collapsed dramatically into one another’s arms. Zarya rewarded them with applause, and they bowed to her like actors on a stage before she resumed reading.

Aazheri magic is performed both from drawing on single elements and combining them to bring about additional nuances and consequences. For example, a protective spell against fire can be created by drawing on the wind, fire, and spirit anchors in varying degrees and proportions. Unfortunately, there is no formula for any spell—each Aazheri must learn to wield each in tandem with their own unique strengths and abilities. This book provides only a framework on how to bring about a particular outcome.

New magic wielders may find their power limited and often erratic, particularly when they are experiencing strong emotions. It requires practice and patience to see magical gifts grow and to discover the necessary combinations to produce the desired outcome. And for some, the limitations of nature will impede that progress. For some, the very nature of their gift can only take them so far. While there are a few whose power has seemed almost bottomless, most will find a limit to it as they fully mature.

Nature only gives us what we can handle, and there is many an Aazheri who has wasted their life trying to fight what the gods intended. It would be wise for the practicing Aazheri to understand that from the beginning.

Zarya contemplated the five points of her anchors, teasing out the distinct elements. Each produced a different spark as she cycled through them. Fire, hot and searing. Wind, cool and light. Water, icy and dense. Earth, thick and grounding. Spirit, shiny and illuminated. Each anchor with its own personality, its own signature, its own essence. It was intoxicating.

She flipped through the book, looking for mention of the sixth anchor she’d heard Suvanna talk about, finding only a brief mention near the end.

Of course, one cannot have a comprehensive discussion on Aazheri magic without recalling the now inaccessible sixth anchor that once belonged to only a handful of powerful Aazheri—the most notorious, of course, being the Ashvins. They combined this sixth strain with the basic elements to perform magical acts that had rarely been seen before and haven’t been accomplished since. While it was a measure borne of necessity to snuff out these brothers’ abilities, it will also forever be a loss to our kind. Without it, we are but a fractured part of the whole.

This was the darkness that Suvanna had been so afraid of. The “tainted magic” she had talked about.

Something about the words “a fractured part of the whole” sent a chill skittering to the back of her neck. Zarya had always been an anomaly, as far as she could tell. Row seemingly had no idea what her star magic was or where it came from. What if she were tainted?

Slowly, she closed her eyes and tried to call it, dreading the outcome.

The darkness.

Of course, nothing happened. She let out the nervous breath trapped in her chest, shaking her head with a wry laugh at herself. What a silly thing to even contemplate. She was going to start jumping at her own shadow next.

With a hand thrust out, she focused on a bubbling stream at the edge of the clearing, sliding her consciousness along her water anchor. Slowly, a droplet peeled up from the surface, where it hovered for all of two seconds before falling with about as much force as a single raindrop.

She sighed as she lowered her hand.