Page 168 of Elemental Becoming

Too strong.

I look around, searching for any advantage, any opening. I feel the surge of Elemental power inside me, but it isn’t enough. The air crackles around me while the earth beneath my feet hums with power, but the Elements no longer feel obedient.

Then Calryx’s voice cuts through my thoughts again, clear and fierce.

“I am with you. I cannot reach you inside the castle, but I feel the storm rising. Trust in your strength. You are more than this battle.”

Her words strike something deep inside me, and with it, resolve ignites.

Then Valen’s voice cuts through the chaos like a clarion call.

“You’ve got this, my girl! It’s in you! Now is the time!”

I close my eyes for one brief moment, centering myself the way Valen taught me.

I draw from the pulse of the earth beneath my feet. The howling winds tearing through the ballroom. The damp air thick with tension. The fire raging all around me.

The Elements gather within me—fire, earth, wind, and water—collapsing into a singular force.

Power blooms low in my belly. I know what I have to do.

I have done this before. In training yards. In controlled environments. With Valen guiding me, with Thane watching, correcting, testing my limits.

But this isn’t practice. This is real.

And suddenly, everything I thought I understood feels different.

The Elements pull at me, demanding, ready to be unleashed. But not like before. Not in calm precision or control. No. Now they are wild, roaring, desperate.

And so am I.

Fire surges first, instinctive and natural. My hands burn with golden heat before I even realize I’ve summoned it. It crackles up my arms, alive and eager, waiting for direction.

Wind howls next, whipping around me, twisting through the fire and feeding it until the flames burn hotter.

Water follows, drawn from the air itself, from the shattered fountain, coiling into razor-edged spears around my body.

Earth hums beneath me, ancient and unbending, crackssplintering through the marble floor as though waiting for my command.

I can feel them all. Power pressing in from every direction, thrumming beneath my skin.

This is what I was born for. This is who I am.

But then—a flash of darkness.

A whisper. A shift in the air. And suddenly, the Elements rebel. They don’t move the way I expect. They don’t listen the way they always have before.

What’s happening?

I try to send fire forward, but the wind twists it wrong, spiraling the flames out of control. I try to form ice, but the water resists, shifting unpredictably in the air.

The shadows are interfering. They are twisting the balance.

And I am not ready for that.

The Commander’s chilling laugh cuts through the frenzy, curling around me like a noose.

“What’s the matter, Spiritborn?” he taunts, his voice a mocking purr. “Losing your grip?”