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The water rose out of the pool and danced under my fingertips. Smoke rose from the fire and became thicker.
"Combine them," Dalyth urged. "Make the magic do what you want it to do."
Considering I wanted to incinerate her, I thought I should probably ignore that advice.
I focused instead on a small plant at the edge of the garden. Carefully, carefully I nudged it with warmth and moisture. After a moment, it started to grow. Tendrils curled out from the sides and grew buds. The buds burst open, becoming vibrantly coloured flowers. The plant grew a metre, two metres.
In a blink, the whole plant wilted and slumped into a pile of wet, brown stalks and petals.
"You need to learn some restraint," Dalyth scolded. "However, we now know you have some ability, in spite of yourself. Try again."
I did, but all I managed to do was to make the reflecting pool bubble and steam. When I cooled it, it turned to slush. I thawed that quickly, but not quickly enough for the fish, whose tiny, dead, yellow bodies floated to the surface.
Dalyth sighed. "Take a break. Hycanthe, it's your turn."
I flopped down beside Jezalyn on the bench and watched Hycanthe try to light a candle in front of her.
"It's not your fault," Jezalyn said softly. When I glanced at her she added, "The fish. Or the plant. You tried. You just need to tie the tendrils of magic together more closely. You have them too loose, like a stitch that needs to be pulled firmer."
I stared at her, but forced my eyes away before Dalyth noticed.
"You can see magic?"
"I think I might be the only one who can," she whispered. "No one else has ever said anything about it."
I glanced over to Hycanthe, but I saw absolutely nothing.
"You can see hers?"
Jezalyn gave a tiny nod. "Hers isn't as strong as yours. She has the control, but she needs to work harder to do smaller things. She gets stronger every time she tries. I think that scares her. If it keeps getting stronger, how strong might it get?"
"Strong enough that she might accidentally hurt you someday?" I suggested. "But she might need to be strong to protect you."
"I think she's worried she won't be strong enough," Jezalyn whispered. "She's tough on the outside. On the inside, she's terrified."
"I know how she feels," I said. I didn't want to hurt anyone unnecessarily either.
I also wasn't convinced I could combine the two magics successfully. They felt too opposite, like night and day. They wanted to work against each other, not in unity.
I wished I'd taken the time to ask Wornar about his. Both the Spring and Autumn Courts used a combination of both magics. Only Summer and Winter used one or the other. Maybe that was the problem. In order to use both, I had to have Spring or Autumn Court blood, or to have had my first heat in one of them.
Instead, I stood on the bridge between two opposing courts. A bridge either made out of ice or fire. Since I couldn't successfully make a bridge of ice and didn't like the idea of trying to walk on one made of fire, I was stuck in the middle.
Hycanthe tentatively lit the candle over and over. Every time she succeeded, Dalyth put it out with a flick of her finger.
"Is she using magic for that?" I asked.
"Yes," Jezalyn replied. "A tiny string of heat and cold. It looks like a whisper of wind."
Her words echoed in my mind for a moment, going around and around. Something clicked into place that hadn't before. An understanding. I could actually see what I needed to do.
I half closed my eyes and drew heat from the fire to warm the ground in front of me. At the same time, I used water to cool the air. As the warm air rose, the cool air rushed in underneath it, creating an eddy of wind. It swirled around, making the leaves on the plants quiver and rustle.
It grew. The wind whistled, then howled. The flame on the candle flickered and danced. Smaller plants and branches whipped this way and that.
I barely managed to tug the wind back before it tore them out by their roots. I snuck in a bit more warmth, drops at a time, until a gentle, cool breeze blew through the atrium, soft like spring.
Only when I let the breeze drop, did I realise all three women were staring at me. Jezalyn with awe. Hycanthe with annoyance.
