I had always liked water. The feel of it flowing around me as I moved through it… the resistance it provided. Moving through air is too easy. You can't feel it as you can when you move through water. That subtle sense of achievement… of progress is missing.

And, how can I forget, the weightlessness. For the longest time, fully submerging myself had been my substitute for flight. Unable to soar through the air, I had spent long hours exploring the depths of the lake near our estate.

Even after I learnt to fly, I found the feel of the wind, like a thousand feathers whipping against me, vastly less enjoyable than the liquid caress of a leisurely swim.

The surface of the water rippled above me, casting a net of blue light on my skin and across the floor and walls of the pool. The same pool I had spent hours in, training my stances for the Thunderclap Samsara palms.

How nostalgic.

I drew upon my magic and the Tier 1 water spell: Water-breathing wrapped me in a thin film of water, allowing me to stay under the surface for as long as I wished. Leaden weights strapped to my feet kept me from floating up.

I was a mage now. A mage with a level of sensitivity towards the elements unheard of below the Demigod stage. My mother was an inheritor of the bloodline of a sacred beast. One that had affinity to both light and water in equal measure. The time when I had to spread glitter in the water just so I could discern the shape of the currents I created was long past. Now every stream and every eddy of the water was mapped out clearly in my mind in a tracery of light blue mana.

I moved… and the water moved with me.

Stepping forward, I slammed my right foot onto the ground and settled into a low crouch. My arms arced through the pool, pulling the water around me into a swirling vortex. Taking another heavy step forward, I slammed both my palms into the block of seastone placed in the middle of the pool.

The force of the blow rippled through the bluish-grey rock and dissipated harmlessly into the surrounding water in a ripple of force. The entire process as clear as day to my soul sense.

My arms felt numb from the reaction. Shaking some life into them, I took two steps back, got into my stance and repeated the chain of movements. Again, and again.

Back when I was preparing for my Duel with Artemis, I had realized that while my advantage was that I had access to multiple elements, it was also my disadvantage. My progress was extremely scattered, making me versatile but lacking in sheer power.

If I wanted to increase my individual battle prowess, I would need to focus on some particular element and Aspect and build a battle system around it as the core.

But this philosophy ran utterly counter to the principles of massed warfare.

The war with the Shogunate had rubbed my inadequacy in my face. Despite being the forerunner of my generation of mages, I was woefully weak in the grand scheme of things. The entire war had been a gambling house among Demigods with everyone else as just set offs.

While I wasn’t arrogant enough to blame myself for the unfavourable results, I couldn't help but feel that I could have made more of a difference.

The events of the war had been bouncing around in my mind ever since I had returned back home. Analysing them, I found that the most impact I had on the war was with my combination techniques.

Unless one was a Demigod, individual strength was pitifully insignificant in a war. But my community amplification technique had allowed several mages to pool their power and by dint of quantity achieve a qualitative leap.

If I truly wanted to make a difference, then developing my community techniques was the way to go.

That meant that I would have to diversify my elemental masteries. Every time I mastered another element, I would gain access to another sixth of the soldier population. Not only that, it would make me more adaptable to different situations.

Then? Which path should I walk? Individual strength, or the power of community?

“Why not both?” Father had asked when I had brought my concern up. “You aren’t even five cycles old yet. You have time. More than enough to spend a year or two exploring.”

So, here I was. Exploring.

As the minutes passed, I fell into a rhythm, my breath synchronizing with each of my blows. Slowly but surely, the turbulence around me calmed as I found the perfect balance point between my efforts and the rebound from the seastone. The flows settled into orderly streams, beginning and ending on the stone block.

I tried varying my efforts, trying to get the flows to synchronize and amplify each other. I tried to get them to cancel each other out. I failed.

Each time the vortex would collapse inwards on me and if not for my strong Barrier I would find myself wearing a coat of bruises.

Whenever this happened, I would take a few minutes to summarize my experience and identify my mistakes before settling down to try again.

When the last rays of the day dyed the pool a dusky orange, I stopped my practice for the day and climbed out of the pool.

I found Phobos waiting with a towel in hand and a smile on her lips. Silhouetted against the red sky, her captivating yellow eyes were bright as she draped the towel over my head and helped me dry my hair.

“How’s the training going?” she asked.

Taking the towel off her hands and drying the rest of my body, I replied, “Good. I managed to redirect the flows of water mana using the seastone as a pivot. Not exactly what I had in mind, but it’s a step forward in the right direction.”

Phobos nodded. “It’s an interesting material, seastone. A perfect blend of water and earth. If your predictions are correct, it can act as the core of the water element version of your amplification technique.”

After I got dressed, we walked back towards the house, occasionally bumping shoulders, filling the time with conversation about our respective magical progress. At some point, our hands touched, our fingers intertwined. After so long in the pool, her hand felt warm clasped in mine.

Reaching our room, I was greeted by an appetizing aroma as soon as I opened the door.

Releasing my hand, Phobos walked over to the table and showed off the array of dishes on it. “Since you were working so hard, I decided to cook something special for dinner.” She lowered her voice conspiratorially. “And I didn’t tell Demi I would be cooking tonight… so you get first choice.”

I couldn't help but chuckle. The little glutton would leave nothing but scraps of her favourite dishes behind for the rest of us if she got first access. Specially as it was Phobos’ craftsmanship we were talking about. No matter how many times she claimed that I had caught up with her, I had self-knowledge. In terms of the culinary arts, I still had ways to go before I could even see her back.

I had just started on the second course of my dinner when Deimos barged in through the open window (I swear she’s becoming more of a bird than even Artemis… and she doesn’t even have wings!) and let out an indignant cry when she noticed the meal in progress.

Ceres joined us soon after. Coming through the door to find Phobos and Deimos bickering while I spectated from the side-lines, interjecting with inflammatory comments now and then as I filled up on dessert.

Shaking her head with a wry smile, she shot me a half-amused half-reproving glare before settling down into the role of peacemaker.

Just as we were winding down with dinner and beginning to wonder where Artemis had disappeared to, the silver-winged princess entered the room. The serious expression on her face made us all sit up straighter.

“I’ve got news,” she said. “They’ve announced the next round of the Swayamvar and we've been assigned to the Caliphate...

"It’s the Trial of Wind.”