Emily rejoins her friends, and they set off into the tunnel, following the river upstream.

  “How are we going to find our way out from here?” Tom asks as they leave the uer passage behind.

  “Easy,” Emily responds, reag into her belt and pulling out the first log pose they used to find The Waters. “With this. We just do the same thing we did when following the Diver and try to go in as straight a line as possible in the dire this points. It may take a little while, but it shouldn’t be too hard.”

  They trek on through the tunnels, killing anything that gets in their way and occasionally stopping to collect herbs and crystals. Every so often, Emily rewinds a day to save the group travelling down a long dead end, speeding up the journey but making it drag even longer for herself.

  A week and a half ter, halfway through the afternoon, Emily raises a hand aures for everyoo stop as they approach a new cavern.

  “There’s a strong mana signature ahead,” she warns everyone, gng back over her shoulder at them. “It’s almost certainly a third circle beast. Be careful.”

  Dante grows excited at the prospect of a hard fight, a savage grin spreading across his face.

  “What is it?” Hester asks as they slowly move forward, fusion ione. “Haven’t your scouts seen it?”

  “Nope,” Emily says with a grin matg Dante’s. “I feel it leaking mana from here. We aren’t close enough yet for my scouts. I think it’s already spotted us, though, but it’s not approag.”

  Her friends are surprised, their i deepened by the reveal.

  “What makes you think it spotted us?” Juliana asks.

  “A few moments after we got close enough for me to feel it, its mana started fluctuating a lot,” Emily responds, feeling the faint bubbling mana swirling around them as if iement, getting stronger as they approach. “But I don’t feel any hostility.”

  She watches through the eyes of the bird flying through the tunnel ahead of them as it arrives in a small cavern, only a dozeres across, leaking the powerful presence. However, looking around through its thermal vision, she doesn’t spot a single creature in the room, nor a hint of heat he surface of the rge pool in the tre.

  It must be uer.

  She keeps the bird focused oer as they steadily grow closer, watg for any ges. They step into the cavern, Emily in the lead with her Cws drawn, and everyone else following behind her, muttering ts in preparation. They look around, their gazes a mix of caution and curiosity as everyone’s focus quickly gathers on the pool of water in the tre of the room, the only notable thing other thahree other eg tunnels.

  Emily approaches the water’s edge, feeling the mana p out from within, but stops and steps back as the surface begins bubbling. She prepares a defensive spell, a rge silver magic circle f behind her and hanging at the ready as the surface roils.

  The bubbling pool shifts, as a mass of water and mist slowly starts to rise in the tre. Emily looks into it through her bird’s eyes, expeg to see the outline of a creature within, but she still sees .

  An attack?

  She waits with bated breath, expeg the water to fly at them suddenly, but, instead, it tinues rising, drawing in more mass until it breaks free of the surface. The floating water tio bubble as it starts to shrink, the mist within flowing bato the pool below, revealing something glowing blue in the tre, as the rest of the form takes on the faint blue hue of pure water.

  Emily’s eyes light up with reition as the bubbling subsides, leaving a floating orb, ner than Emily’s torso, of crystal-clear water with a fist-sized glowing blue core at the tre.

  “Aal!” she mutters in surprise, sending a wave of shock through her friends.

  “Seriously?” Enzo asks incredulously, staring at the floating orb in wonder. “To think we’d find a dungeon and aal in one expedition.”

  “Are they rare?” Tom asks, admiring the creature with caution still in his gaze. “Are they dangerous?”

  “Possibly,” Emily says, stepping forward and holding her hand out palm up. “But I don’t think so.”

  She gestures for her friends to stay still with her other hand as she sloroaches the water’s edge.

  “Elementals’ personalities depend heavily on what element they are,” Enzo expins to Tom as Emily moves forward. “A water elemental is uo be ht hostile, but there’s still a ce it might be. The fact that it revealed itself peacefully is a good sign though. If it was hostile, it probably would have stayed ier spewing attacks at us.”

  Emily tuhem out and watches the elemental for a rea to her adva quivers, shaking almost excitedly before slowly floating closer to her. She pauses, being unnaturally still as she waits for the mass of elemental mana to close the distaself.

  It approaches slowly, pausing a few timetres away from Emily, letting her get a good view of the glistening, gem-like core suspended in its tre. The creature’s surface shakes and bends as a small tendril of water reaches out for Emily’s hand, pressing down into her palm. The moment she makes tact with the elemental, she feels a cool, calmiion spread through her body.

  When the sensation reaches her heart, the circles of power surrounding it seem to resoh the sensation, taking oint of water and flooding her system with water-attributed mana. Following her instincts, Emily lets the water mana bubble out of the skin on her arm, sending a stream of ethereal water bato the elemental.

  Her mana starts to drain as power flows out of her, but, in respohe elemental pulses, a bright blue light flowing through its body from its core and eg to her hand. She feels a powerful, pure water mana flow into her body, heading straight for her heart where her circles quickly pull it in, breaking it down and refilling her reserves instantly, a fra rger than before.

  It’s boosting my cultivation!

  The elemental ripples excitedly as they circute their mana together, a feeling of joy spreading to Emily across their e, bringing a smile to her lips.

  “Thank you,” Emily says to the elemental as it floats closer, its tendril retrag until its body rests on her palm. “Would you like to meet my friends?”

  She feels another burst of joy across their e and takes it as a yes, turning auring for her friends to approach.

  “It’s safe,” she says to her friends, removing the st of their reservations. “e say hi.”

  They quickly walk over, curiosity aement pstered across their faces as they look at Emily, her arm ed in water, talking to the elemental.

  “ it uand you?” Juliana asks as she stops beside Emily, her gaze locked on the orb of water.

  “Yes,” Emily says, attempting to replicate the elemental’s method of unication by imbuing her mana with thoughts of encement. “I feel its emotions through our link right now.”

  The elemental seems to uand her message, stretg out a tendril to offer to Juliana. Seeing the presented limb, Juliana reaches up and touches it. However, after a few seds the elemental ripples aracts its tendril, sending disappoi across its e with Emily.

  “It felt calming, but nothing else,” Juliana says, looking at Emily with in her eyes. “Did I do something wrong?”

  Emily shakes her head, sending the elemental reassurance.

  “No, I don’t think so. It’s not angry or anything, just disappointed. I think it’s reted to your element. It's water mana that’s eg us right now, so I think it ’t create a e with you because you ’t send water back. Hester, how about you try?”

  “Okay,” Hester says, stepping up to the orb and presenting her hand like Emily did, waiting for the elemental to initiate.

  Aendril splits off from the orb, and this time Hester has a simir rea to Emily, water mana p out of her hand to join the orb.

  “Woah,” she excims as the e is made, and Emily feels another burst of joy from the elemental, this one mixed with a hint of fusion as well.

  The elemental quivers for a moment, pulling up from Emily’s hand and keeping a tendril ected before dropping back down again a moment ter. A more plicated mixture of emotions flows into Emily, and her spare cores quickly pick it apart, trying to unpick the meaning.

  “What does that mean?” Hester asks, clearly fused by the mixed signals.

  “I think,” Emily says, with a chuckle. “It ’t work out whie of us it likes more.”

  The elemental shakes frantically, and another pulse of emotions flows into Emily aer, with reassurand affeixed with a few more abstract signals, as if trying to unicate something beyoions. Emily quickly breaks down the signals, trying to uand their meaning as the elemental keeps ging them.

  “What-“ Daarts to ask, being silenced immediately when Emily raises a fio her lips and shuts her eyes.

  After a few moments, Emily opens her eyes again and starts speaking.

  “I think it’s trying to say that it likes both of us, but our es are different.” A burst of happiness pushes Emily in the right dire as she tinues her transtion. “Hester’s closer to it? But I’m more ected to it? Hmm, no, that’s not quite right. Hester’s element is closer to it, but it still transmit to me more easily? Closer.”

  Emily’s eyes widen slightly as the meaning of the strange unication clicks in her mind.

  “Hester’s elemental affinity is more aligned with it, but my e with mana is stronger.”

  The elemental bubbles excitedly, bobbing up and down on Emily’s hand in agreement.

  “Wait, Hester’s more aligned with it?” Enzo says with fusion, turning a questioning gaze on Emily. “How is that possible? I uand she’s got a great affinity for water, but didn’t you plete a full maion for water on your first attempt? She only pleted hers a few weeks ago. Surely you have a higher affinity.”

  “Not quite,” Emily says, her friends curiously hanging on her every word. “My ability to ma so many elements is due to a high elemental prehension, not affinity.”

  “What’s the difference?” Dante questions.

  “There’s a massive differenoment,” she says as an eager grin spreads across her face.

  Emily turns her full attention back to the elemental, relying on her analysis of the elemental’s unication to try and transmit a message of parable plexity herself.

  ‘Break… e… Small… Time… Stay… With… Other… Please?’

  She forms a blend of mental signals into a simple message and sends it to the elemental. The orb of water doesn’t react for a few moments, deciphering Emily’s message, before it suddenly droops around her hand while sending back a simple mix of uanding and sadness.

  A moment ter, it returns to normal and lifts off of Emily’s hand, breaking their e and dissipating the flow of water around her arm, moving to sit oer’s instead.

  “So,” Emily says, taking a few steps away and turning to face all of her friends at once. “Affinity and prehension. To start with, what do you think these two terms mean?”

  “How ected you are to a, and how you uand it?” Ivns with a questioning tilt of his head.

  “Exactly! These are the two things you o use a. You use your prehension to form a solid mental image of the element, and your affinity to innately ect with it. The higher your affinity, the easier prehension will e naturally, and the easier it will be for you to trol the element. But, and here’s the point most of The ant’s mages seem tet, you don’t need a high affinity to use a. Practically everyone has a e with fire, water, air, ah, hehem being called the os, and most people also have some affinity with either light or darkness as well. Just think back to when you first tried to ma elements, how many of you got some rea from something other than the element you use now? No matter how small.”

  All of her friends seem surprised by her words, taking pause to think back to their first attempts at finding their element. After a moment, they slowly start raising their hands until everyone has.

  “See. All of you would be able to cast spells with a multitude of elements if you studied them and built up your prehension, but a single specialisation makes it easier to go further so most people don’t. My initial maions just followed that to the extreme. I do have a high affinity for a lot more elements than most, but the main cause was my mind being very good at f mental images, and my uanding of the elements being very high to start with, so I ended up with a lot of successful maions. However, I still have my natural aligs. Look.”

  Emily raises both of her hands before her, p mana from them with a different element in each. Above her left hand, a flickering e fme with glistening white sparks forms, growing to the size of her fist. Above her right, streams of lightning form, violently crag as they form into a single bolt that grows to the same size as her forearm.

  “I’m using the same amount of mana to form each of these,” she expins. “But do you see the difference?”

  “The lightning is bigger,” Tom says, receiving an approving nod from Emily as her gaze sweeps across everyone else, still waiting for another answer.

  “It’s more violent?” Dante questions, lookiweewo elements with his eyes narrowed in tration.

  “No,” Hester says, notig how Emily doesn’t react to his question. “It’s more trolled.”

  Emily’s mouth breaks into a wide smile as she nods.

  “Correct. It looks more violent, but it’s actually more trolled since lightning itself is a harder element to hahan fire. And yes, it’s rger. See, my affinity for fire is my third stro, whereas lightning is my stro. You’ve probably noticed I tend to use more lightning spells than anything else, and that’s because, for the same mana cost, I create and trol stronger spells.”

  “Is water your sed highest?” Enzo asks as she releases the two maions.

  “No, it’s metal. Water’s probably my fourth or fifth? I’m not sure exactly si’s harder to tell the differeween my lower affinities, but it’s definitely not my stro. But, for Hester it is, so it’s no wohat the elemental likes her so much. As for why it likes me even though my water affinity isn’t that high? It’s probably because I’m a higher circle, so my mana is denser and purer. Also, I have a high e with mana itself.”

  “You have an affinity for mana?” Juliana asks, taken aback by the statement.

  “Yep! Have you ever heard stories of the first mages?” Emily asks, notig Tom’s eyes light up with excitement.

  “I have!” he says. “I read about them. The first mages discovered magic when they found an oasis in the desert that passed over a mana vein. They said that the mana spoke to them and revealed its secrets, allowing them to awaken.”

  “Exactly. Some people have a high e with mana itself, and that’s the base requirement for being a mage. Even normal unawakened mortals have elemental affinities, but it’s the e with mana that allows us to realise them.”

  As her friends are processing the revetion, Emily approaches the elemental again and pces her hand against it, recreating their e instantly.

  “Is that how you know all this? her our teachers nor families have ever mentiohis before. In fact, I was always told stories of the first mages were fairytales,” Enzo questions with a raised brow.

  “Partially. And I’ve read a lot, including an at from a fourth circle mage,” Emily says, using Gaius’ notes as an excuse for her system knowledge. “I also don’t know if the stories about the first mages are true, so take my words with a grain of salt if you want. What you gain from what I say is your choice, I just enjoy sharing my knowledge.”

  KeroKeron