<div>


    <div>


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


    <div>


    Heradion stared at her. Had she said something stupid? Did this mean she couldn’t learn? If he laughed at her, she would punch him right in the nose.


    To her surprise, the old man grinned. "You’ve unwittingly grown up into a decent vessel. A blank page by dumb luck. Good for you."


    Lana narrowed her eyes at the backhanded compliment. "Now what?"


    "Now, we determine out which ability will suit you."


    "What do you mean?"


    He sighed. "You''re so dense. It''s staggering that you are able to use your tempest to leap through the air, considering how pathetically weak you are. You must have trained a lot for those, am I right?"


    Lana fidgeted with one of her daggers. "Yes. I make sure to expend my tempest every night."


    "What about those daggers?" Heradion asked. "You throw them?"


    "Most of the time."


    "You must run out of weapons often, correct?"


    "Yes. In my last fight, my daggers were even used against me."


    Heradion rubbed his palms together, his eyes flaring bright in excitement. "I am a genius," he said, grabbing her hand. "Close your eyes."


    Lana closed her eyes and imagined the churning nothingness again. This time, it quickened, and flared when Heradion grabbed her arm. A jolt passed between them, and, to her amazement, it made everything easier to control.


    "What did you do?" she asked.


    "Be silent."


    Lana slammed her lips shut.


    "Good," he said. "Now, I want you to imagine a light in the palm of your hand."


    "I don''t want to work with fire."


    "Silence! Did I say fire? No, I didn''t. Light. White light."


    Lana followed his instructions as best she could, imagining light gathering in the palm of her hand. It wasn''t difficult. She''d just imagined Sarien’s bright white flame.


    After she fixed the image in her mind, she asked, "Now what?"


    "I want you to mold that light until it is in the shape of a dagger."


    Lana concentrated on the light, changing it with her will, and molding it into a shape roughly resembling a knife. The light resisted her, pulsing against her will. With considerable effort, she forced it into the shape of a dagger. When she spoke, it was through gritted teeth. "Now what?" she grunted. "Do I have it?"


    "Close enough," Heradion said. "Now make it solid."


    Sweat beaded on her forehand and ran down her back. The power inside her changed from the swirling nothingness into a bursting bright light, causing her to wince.


    "How exactly am I supposed to accomplish that? "


    "Just bend it to your will. Can’t be hesitant about these things.”


    Lana scowled and focused all her might. A weight settled into the palm of her hand.


    "Now throw it!" Heradion shouted.


    With a practiced flick of her wrist, Lana threw the dagger to her left. She opened her eyes. For an instant, she saw an object of brilliant light shooting away from her before disappeared in a disappointing puff of light.


    "Why didn''t it work?"


    "You opened your eyes," Heradion said, exasperated.


    "I can''t throw daggers without looking!"


    "That''s not what I said. Did you expect to become a master at a new and unknown magical power that this world has never seen in a single try?"


    "No, I guess not."


    "I discovered this nifty little power as a young man. As long as you have the energy left inside you, objects can be created." As if to demonstrate, Heradion manifested a cup out of pale light and poured his wine into it. Once he’d emptied the cup, he tossed it into the air. The cup disappeared in midflight.


    "Great for utility."


    The applications for such a power were staggering. Lana smiled up at the old bastard. "What do you call this?"


    "The original practitioners didn’t have a language developed enough to name it properly. From their wild gesticulations and grunting, I’m guessing it was something resembling ‘light conjuration’.”


    "Light conjuration." Lana tasted the name. "Doesn’t have much of a punch to it."


    Heradion shrugged. "Now go practice."


    He turned to leave, but Lana stopped him. "Wait. Are you going to help us take back Vinden?"


    "No."


    "Why not?"


    "Let’s say, because I don’t feel like it."


    "Then what are you doing in Loft?" Lana asked.


    "Just taking in the sights, ridding your little world of some beings who have no business being here.”You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    "The rhinn have no place here,” she argued.


    Heradion created a long, thin stick out of light and used it to poke her in the ribs. "Not looking like you do not a monster make. Honestly, you would be better off making them your allies."


    "What?" Lana asked. "Why?"


    He looked up at the sky. It was getting dark again. "Oh, no reason. I need to speak to that maniac aeromancer of yours. If I see you again, you better be throwing daggers of light rather than metal."


    "You’re leaving already?" Lana asked, surprised.


    "There are some rumblings to the east that require my attention."


    Lana protested, "But you said you’d teach me."


    "And I did. You have everything you need to work this out for yourself now. If you can’t do that much, then there is nothing else I can teach you."


    "Fine, go then. Be careful you don’t get a glowing dagger in your back when you leave."


    Heradion eyed her, then broke into a mischievous smile. "You should try wearing a dress once you’re a good enough conjurer. It would suit you, I think!”


    She threw one of her metal daggers at his face.


    A glowing white plate helmet shimmered into existence. The dagger bounced off with a muted clank and Heradion cackled.


    "Utility!"


    Still laughing, he jumped down from the roof and disappeared.


    "Farewell, you old bastard!" Lana shouted after him.


    What a strange and irritating man. Nothing like the person he presented when they first made his acquaintance. Heradion, or rather, Juoko. Strange people for strange times.


    Since the Loftians could take care of themselves, and she wasn’t really their leader, Lana sat and began practicing the new form of magic. Lana grinned. Heradion had shown her the exact ability she needed to defeat that rhinn gateway warrior. He’d used her own daggers against her. With this, she realized that she could dissolve her dagger if the attack missed. She would no longer need to dodge them.


    Lana closed her eyes and focused. This time, it took her no time at all to sense past what she’d called her tempest and really see the underlying power, what Heradion called the secondary flow. However, calling on that power was still like wrestling with a fish. It slipped out of her fingers and moved in ways she didn’t anticipate. Finally, she forced it to conform to her will. A white light sprouted in the palm of her hand. Even then, forming it into something useful proved almost impossible without the old man’s help. He’d made it look effortless while she struggled to even make an oblong shape.


    Wind threw her hair around, chilling the sweat forming on her body, making it even more difficult to concentrate. She really needed to cut her hair short again. Furious at the slippery pale light, she pushed harder, forcing it to bend to her will. Her mind spun, but she held fast to the image of a dagger.


    "What are you doing? What is that thing?"


    Lana’s concentration shattered, and the light winked away. She glared up at Wade. "You ruined it!"


    He sat down next to her. "I''m sorry. I kept my distance, but you were still for hours that I thought you fell asleep."


    "Hours?" It was pitch black out. Lana shivered from the cold. "The old man taught me a new trick. He went to look for you."


    Wade nodded. "It’s been strange. Did you know the others can’t remember what he did to the rhinn?"


    "You can?"


    "Sure," Wade said. "Felt some sort of pressure after he attacked the rhinn soldiers, but I pushed back on it." He pointed at his own head. "Think he might have been messing with our minds."


    "I didn’t feel anything."


    "He told me you were old friends."


    Lana snorted. "Yeah, right."


    "Well, he said he enjoyed watching me fly and looked forward to seeing me crash one day."


    "Sounds about right," Lana said.


    Wade chuckled. "He taught me something, too."


    Lana raised an eyebrow. "He did?"


    "Watch this." Wade held up his hand toward the forest outside the city. A few seconds later, a bright bolt of lightning arced down from the sky and struck a tree, blowing it apart. The sound of thunder followed close behind.


    She gasped. "He taught you his lightning trick?"


    Flames flickered from where lightning struck, and Wade got up to his feet quickly. "I better make sure the whole forest doesn’t burn down." He turned to Lana. "It wasn’t that difficult. But don’t feel bad, I’m already becoming a legend! The aeromancer who learned to fly. Now I can actually do it and hurt rhinn at the same time."


    He glanced at the fire before turning his attention back on Lana. "So, what did he teach you?"


    "I’ll show you when I get it right," she grunted.


    "Great! Well, we’re leaving tomorrow."


    "Already?"


    The flames were spreading, and a bell started tolling somewhere in the city.


    "I better go," Wade said, wincing. "Talk to you in the morning. Can’t wait to see what you can do."


    Lana was certain that Wade didn''t go out of his way to antagonize her on purpose, but watching as he ran off, a smile plastered on his face, it was sometimes difficult to tell. Interrupting her was expected, Wade often popped out of nowhere when she desired time alone, but the way he had so effortlessly learned a new form of magic boggled her mind. Lana felt a pang of envy.


    She allowed herself to wallow for five deep breaths, then resumed her training. If they were leaving in the morning, she wanted to be able to at least conjure a dagger before then.


    As the sun rose, Lana’s chest heaved, and her clothes were drenched in sweat. Her source, that’s what she’d decided on calling the churning power inside her, was nearly depleted. In her hand, she held a solid object made out of light. To call it a dagger was a bit too generous, but it was good enough.


    She grinned ferociously, repressing the urge to let out a shout of victory. Flipping it in her hand, she threw it at a nearby tree only to watch it disappear before hitting its target.


    Still, Lana laughed. She’d done it!


    Her eyes widened in horror as she swayed to her feet. With a final push of her power, Lana conjured the wind. It blew against her face weakly, but she let out a sigh of relief. For a terrifying moment, she was afraid that her newfound power nullified her old one. She knew that Heradion could utilize the many different forms of magic, but she was no legendary hero.


    Lana fell back, exhausted, but with a smile still playing on her lips.


    It took her almost a full hour to gather enough strength to move down to the others. Several wagons waited in the town''s square. She crawled into one and pulled her cloak over her head and fell asleep.


    She woke with a start when the wagon jostled violently. Lana sat up, bleary-eyed, to her traveling in caravan. Long lines of men and women trailed up and down the road before and behind her.


    Wade was sitting next to her, cross-legged. "Good morning," he said, cheerfully.


    "Morning," Lana mumbled, rubbing at her eyes and trying to get a sense of how much she’d recovered.


    "I’m leaving for a bit to scout for more Loftians, and to see if I can locate the people who fled Orkan by boat before the rhinn took the city."


    Lana''s eyes snapped wide. "Wait. Your hometown has fallen?"


    "Well, yes," Wade said, frowning. "Every city has."


    "Right."


    "The guild in Orkan sent their citizens away on boats, though, and Vinden fell before they could reach it. All those aeromancers, and my family, are still out there somewhere."


    Lana sighed. "I understand that you have to go, but can’t you ask someone else to lead these people in your absence? That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?"


    "It is," Wade admitted.


    "I’m no leader," Lana protested.


    Wade limbered up his shoulders and started unpacking a cloth sack, bringing out bits of thin rope and canvas. "Everyone knows where to go and what to do. They just need someone they can look to for support, should they need it. The next village is near enough that you should arrive by nightfall. Don’t spend all your energy practicing that light of yours. You’ll need it in a fight before long."


    "Fine," Lana grumbled.


    "You asked me to lead," Wade said, shrugging. "This is me leading."


    "Couldn’t we just go to Vinden and take it now? With your lightning, we could take the city," Lana pleaded.


    Wade chortled. "Don’t be naive."


    He finished strapping the canvas to his back. Without another word, he jumped off the side of the wagon. A tremendous gust of wind carried him into the air, followed by several more to keep him aloft. Lana blinked as she watched Wade soar higher and higher until he topped the trees. A few words drifted down to her.


    Lana wasn’t sure, but she thought she’d heard him shout, "You little shit!"