<div>


    <div>


    <h2 style="text-transform: uppercase"> </h2>


    <div>


    Another low rumble trembled the ground in the small town. It had to be Wade.


    Lana sliced the sleeve off of her tunic and bound her leg. She didn''t know much about treating injuries, but the bleeding stopped at least.


    Lana gritted her teeth as she stumbled away. She had failed and hoped that Wade had better luck. She''d return to the front and assist there.


    Much of her inner tempest was spent which forced her to hobble along the side streets, keeping to the shadows. She dodged patrols, who seemed oblivious that an attack was occurring.


    Lana watched in amazement as a boulder the size of her head soared through the air and struck a building, collapsing it. Since when had that wind-brained doofus become strong enough to do that?


    Gauging the trajectory, Wade was somewhere near the southern part of the city, which was convenient, because that''s where she needed to go.


    She only had three daggers left. The rest were lost. Anger rose in Lana as she hurried toward Wade. The man with the gateways handled her like an infant. But she''d show him. No matter what, she''d defeat him one day.


    Lana followed the sounds of fighting and hurried as fast as she could with her injured leg. By her current position, the rhinn would have their backs to her. That was when she did her best work.


    As the sounds of fighting grew louder, Lana saw a man on top of one of the rooftops. Even in the distance, he was easily recognizable. With power she couldn’t really spare, she leapt up from the ground onto the nearest rooftop and made her way to him.


    "You''re not here to side with the rhinn, I hope."


    He didn''t turn to look at her. "I''m just enjoying a quiet moment. Well, I was enjoying a quiet moment."


    "What are you doing here, Heradion?"


    He turned to gaze down at her. "You’re the girl traveling with Sarien. What are you doing here?"


    Lana drew a dagger. "Fighting rhinn, of course, taking back Loft. Weren''t you going off to Sarien’s home or something? To find that boy?"


    Heradion turned back to face the battle below. "The Karm estate, yes. Not a soul remained."


    "Empty?"


    "Completely."


    "So, you didn’t find his friend?"


    "You ask a lot of questions," he said. "I’ve got some questions of my own. Is Sarien here? Did he find his father?"


    Lana didn''t really care that Heradion was once one of the heroes of legend or the true reason why he was in Loft. She only cared about freeing the people of this town.


    "I''ll tell you anything you want to know if you help me first."


    He looked at her silently, one eyebrow raised.


    "With the rhinn. This is not going to end well for the Loftians. Help us take the city back and I''ll satisfy your curiosity."


    Heradion stood there for a long moment, quiet, as if pondering her offer. Finally, he nodded. "That is agreeable."


    He pointed at a rhinn patrol rushing through the streets. "Want me to kill those? All of them?"


    Lana couldn''t help but smile. "I want them all dead." She winced in pain. "Also, could you heal me?"


    "I’m no healer."


    The old man was about to drop down from the rooftop, but Lana stopped him. "One more thing. You’re the hydromancer, Juoko, but used fire to save us before."


    "What of it?"


    "Can you use every sort of magic?"


    "I thought I was the one who was supposed to get the answers."


    Lana grinned. "Humor me."


    Heradion sat down, his feet dangling off the side of the building, as if the fighting below didn’t bother him in the slightest. "My people can access the different schools of magic connected to the base flow, and a few that are not. But we can''t heal, travel, or slay."


    "Could you teach me?" Lana asked, hoping.


    Sarien’s father''s words rang through her head, saying how one could learn and use the other types of magic besides the one that they were born with. He did also say that she wouldn''t be able to, being born into this world, but Lana refused to believe him. People had been telling her what she couldn’t do for most of her life. She didn''t plan to stop proving them wrong.


    Heradion pondered her words. His long white hair blew in the wind. "What makes you think you could? You met Ein, didn’t you?"


    "Maybe."


    "You are starting to frustrate me, girl."


    "Become my teacher, and you’ll be able to officially reprimand me," Lana suggested.


    Heradion’s eyes became unfocused for a moment. "Your tempest is weak as a kitten’s. Why would I want to teach someone who can barely make leaves stir?"


    Hope was slipping away. "Well, what do you want?"


    "A way home."


    "I can do that," she replied confidently.


    So, the old man wanted to use her to get to Sarien. She knew that Sarien would help Heradion without question, but she didn''t need to tell him that. This was an opportunity to improve her abilities, and, maybe then, she''d be strong enough to defeat that strange man and save her home.


    Heradion spat in his hand and held it out to her, and she copied the disgusting gesture.


    "Try to keep up," Heradion said.


    He dropped to the ground silently and disappeared in a blur of motion before reappearing at the end of the street. It took Lana a second to collect herself and jump after him, using the wind to her advantage. She struggled to keep up with her injured leg.


    Rhinn soldiers flocked around Heradion. Flames billowed from his hands, punching into the rhinn soldiers, and turning them into ash. His attacks emanated such powerful heat that their Loftian allies retreated to make way for Heradion.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    Heradion and Lana stood together, and he rained fiery death on anyone who dared turn his way.


    Lana spotted Tre among the Loftians. The boy’s gaze was fixed on Heradion and his eyes wide with terror.


    Fire bloomed in Tre''s palm, then hurtled at Heradion in a desperate attack.


    The old man flicked his other hand and water gushed forth in a torrent with the power of a raging river. It crashed into the Loftian lines, sweeping them off their feet and pushing them back into the forest. They screamed and flailed in the rushing water.


    "Stop it!" she shouted, tugging at Heradion''s sleeve. "They are on our side!"


    The rhinn made use of Heradion’s temporary distraction, charging forward and surrounding them both.


    He put his hands together, the tip of his index fingers touching, and pointed upward to the skies. Lana expected to see more fire, but none came. Instead, lightning crackled from far above, striking into the rhinn formation and obliterating it. The enemies stiffened and fell or were simply blown apart by the raging bolts. Thunder boomed throughout the entire forest, again and again like the tolling of a giant bell, sounding out the deaths of Heradion’s victims.


    Lana spotted movement on the roof of a building not far from their position. It was the man from before—the gateway warrior. He observed them silently. Lana shouted at Heradion, pointing at the man. A bolt of lightning hurtled from the sky, accompanied by a deafening clap of thunder. The entire building collapsed into a heap of rubble, but she thought she saw the rhinn warrior scurry through a gateway.


    Heradion cracked his knuckles. "How would you like to learn that one?"


    "Could I?" she asked.


    She couldn''t hide the awe in her voice. Lana was sure the old man would use that against her at the first opportunity.


    He scoffed. "Doubt it. Can’t hurt to try, though. Might be amusing. Just don''t forget your end of the bargain. I''ve been stuck here for nearly two hundred years. That annoying woman said she couldn’t send me home then just disappeared, and the boy was still too green when we first met. Wayfarers are the worst."


    "Yeah, I''m sure," Lana said, not even remotely sure what he was going on about.


    The Loftians were finally getting to their feet after being swept away by the conjured river. They stood, pointing at Heradion and Lana in wonder.


    A scream filled the air above them and Wade came crashing down from the sky. He managed a less than graceful landing on a nearby rooftop.


    Wade stood and brushed himself off before inspecting his strange flying apparatus. Once through with his inspection, Wade straightened. "Looks like you found a friend, Lana."


    Heradion whistled. "Flying? I don''t think I''ve seen anything as stupid as that before in my life, and I’ve lived for a long time."


    The aftermath of Heradion''s extermination, as there was no other word for it, was a terrifying sight to behold. Dead rhinn soldiers lay smoldering or burned from inside out by his lightning attack. Charred body parts littered the street. The stink of it made Lana''s eyes water, and many Loftians emptied their stomachs at the sight.


    Only a handful of Loftians were killed or injured, all thanks to the grumpy old man. Still, she noticed, they would not look him in the eye. She understood their apprehension, but there was no denying that he saved them. In her mind, they should be grateful.


    Tre trembled violently as Heradion looked at the young pyromancer with disinterest. Lana couldn''t tell if Tre was frightened or relieved when Heradion neglected to mention Tre''s attack.


    Only a handful of rhinn soldiers remained in the city, and they were easily routed.


    Lana, accompanied by Wade and Tre, returned to the command outpost. It was empty except for two dead rhinn, the ones Lana failed to kill. Who’d finished them? There was no sign of the gateway warrior, other than a near line made out of Lana’s daggers, placed on the unrolled map. All daggers except one.


    What an irritating man.


    The map showed troop placements in the city and the same for a number of nearby villages.


    Wade pointed at the nearest village. "We''ll go here next."


    "How long until we can turn our sights on Vinden?" Lana asked. "Do we have enough soldiers now?"


    Wade shook his head. "Our fellow countrymen are fierce, but they lack the training. We need to bolster our numbers and find more aeromancers to join our cause."


    "What about that old man?" Tre asked.


    Lana eyed the boy. "What about him?"


    "He could take Vinden by himself."


    "Not sure he’d want to help," Lana said.


    "Will you ask him?" Wade asked.


    "I will."


    Later, after Lana located and cornered Heradion on one of the rooftops, she worked up the courage to ask him what had been on her mind ever since she met Ein, Sarien''s father. "You said I was as weak as a kitten. If I do learn something new, another form of magic, will my strength be just as unremarkable?"


    Heradion pondered the question. "Your strength in the base flow is terrible," he began. "That''s where aeromancy and all the other elemental skills in this world are born from."


    "But there are more flows?" Lana asked, hope rising.


    "There are others, but measuring a person''s strength in them is impossible without first having that person touch those flows. I wouldn''t have the first idea of how strong or weak you are or will be, or if you can even access them." He paused. "With the base flow, you can become stronger with enough time and determination. You could become as strong as that flying maniac."


    Lana doubted that. The gulf between herself and Wade was greater than a proper tempest and a puff of wind.


    "Can you teach me a different flow?"


    Heradion harrumphed. "It goes against all propriety. Still, like you’ve been saying, I’m old, and don''t give a hoot about such things. Not anymore."


    His gaze was surprisingly intense, considering the airy tone of his voice. "Without someone outside of the base flow, you would have no chance of finding these things for yourself. You understand?"


    "I understand," Lana said. "And I''m grateful."


    "No," he sighed. "That''s not what I mean. Except for Sarien, and maybe the people like that healer of yours, and the growers, of course, you would be the first. You could be responsible for changing how things work in this world forever. Is that what you want?"


    What was she supposed to say to that? Sarien wasn''t part of the world''s natural order, she could understand, but the growers?


    "Won''t that be the case already?" she asked. "People have seen what Sarien can do. Everybody knows about the growers. Also, we all saw how you used lightning in that last fight."


    Heradion sighed. "The healers and the growers are assumed to be part of your people’s magical abilities, so no one questions their use of a secondary flow. Sarien will become part of legend, like Ein. As for me, if you ask around, you’ll find that your friends never saw me using anything other than fire."


    "How is that possible? You used hydromancy."


    Heradion chuckled. "Ask the boy and see what he remembers."


    "I will." She frowned. "So, what you''re saying is that it’s different with me because I''m so ordinary?"


    Heradion took a swig from a wine cup he’d produced from somewhere without her noticing. "Now you’re getting it."


    "Old man, I don''t care that I’m ordinary. I just need the tools to make a difference. Who cares if the world changes? How bad could that be? It isn''t all roses and sunshine right now, if you hadn’t noticed."


    Heradion drained his cup. "Just don''t say I didn''t warn you when the consequences of your decision make themselves known."


    Silence stretched between them until Heradion deigned to speak again. "When you use your inner tempest, what does it look like?"


    Lana frowned. "What do you mean? It looks like wind."


    "What does wind look like?"


    "Leaves blowing through trees, knives redirected, leaping," she answered.


    He grinned. "And do you have knives and leaves inside you?"


    Her face reddened. "No, of course not."


    "Then what? "


    Lana waved at the air, grasping for the right words. "A storm?"


    Heradion''s cup was filled to the brim with wine again, and he took another swallow. "That''s a start. How was it taught to you?"


    " No one taught me. It just came to me one day, or, perhaps, it was always there. Only Wade knew. Never told anyone else, not before I joined the academy."


    "Oh, you might be better suited for this than you know. What is the academy?"


    "It’s in Eldsprak. A place where you learn to fight."


    Heradion nodded thoughtfully. "And has a proper aeromancer ever described this inner tempest to you?"


    Lana thought back to her childhood and early adolescence. Even before she left, Lana hadn''t interacted with many aeromancers. Wade was the only one who she''d met and befriended, and he just went on and on about becoming the first human to fly, to soar like a bird, and never spoke about what it felt like to use it.


    "Never."


    "Well then, tell me again. What does it feel like when you make the tempest inside you churn? Have you ever really looked? I mean, really looked?"


    Lana closed her eyes and drew power from the tempest inside her. Was it really wind? She never really thought about it if she was being honest. Growing up in Loft, she just assumed she was an aeromancer. That’s how it worked. She stoked the power, trying to get a real sense of what it was that thundered at her core.


    A mass radiated power inside her. As she focused on it, it began to form into a shape. It was a sluggish pool of translucent nothingness and her will pushed against it, moving like a stick stirring a pot of thick syrup.


    "It’s nothing," she said, amazed. "Like a newborn, ready to become anything."