"Good morning," Ryan said as he woke.

"Good morning, sir," Tyler responded, his voice hoarse.

"Are you sick again?" Ryan asked as he sat up, his voice filled with concern. "Did the healer not do a proper job?"

"What do you mean, sir?" Tyler asked. "This is my first time not feeling well in years."

"You were sick when I awoke yesterday, too."

"Maybe you were dreaming?" Tyler cleared his throat, as if it was difficult to speak. "I was quite well yesterday morning, sir."

Ryan frowned. That was most definitely not a dream. He had most definitely gone through an entire day, and Tyler had most definitely been sick when he woke the day before. Yet Tyler's voice was genuine. He knew his servant well enough to know that.

"Tyler, what day is it?" Ryan asked.

"Thursday, November sixteenth, two thousand one hundred and seventy-three."

Ryan sighed further. He was reliving the same day, which meant that either he had dreamed the entire day, or he was genuinely reliving it. Either option meant one thing: time magic had been used. Both cases meant he had performed it, too, unless someone else was able to inflict reliving the same day upon someone, in which case, Kayla cast it.

He would need to determine that after dinner. If he had cast the spell, then he was a chronomancer.

Or he could figure it out then. If he had sent his soul into the past, he could do so again, could he not?

"What time is it?" Ryan asked.

"Seven-eighteen in the morning, sir," Tyler answered with a light cough.

"Thank you," Ryan focused, feeling inwards.

Magic was a like a muscle. It needed to be exercised. Until its first use, it was dormant, unused. However, once it was used, it could be used again, flexed when needed, so long as the necessary mana was available. Even if he couldn't feel the 'muscle', he could use it if it were available.

Reaching inwards within himself, Ryan focused on sending himself several minutes back in time. Every few minutes, he asked Tyler what time it was, only to find that time had progressed, even after he found himself back in a laying position, having fallen backwards at some point as he focused. At least, until he received a response which delighted him.

"Seven-fourteen in the morning, sir," Tyler answered. "Good morning, Ryan. Did you sleep well?"

"I did," Ryan answered. "Though you sound ill."

"I will do my best to serve you anyway," Tyler responded.

"What is today's date?"

"Thursday, November sixteenth, two thousand one hundred and seventy-three."

"Thank you," Ryan sat up. "You should rest, Tyler. I'll have Father send for the family healer, though he might take the day to arrive."

"There is no need to concern yourself with me," Tyler responded. "I'm sure a little rest is all that will be needed."

"Get some rest," Ryan told him. "I can manage without you for a day."

"Thank you, sir," Tyler said.

Ryan listened as his servant stood and exited the room, and thought over his options. He would want to play with his chronomancy a little more. After having used it intentionally once, he could feel that magical muscle of his. Not only that, but he had a sense for understanding the spell's activation and for how far he could push it. A couple of weeks, at most, with its current power. With practice, he could turn that into months or years.

He'd heard of mages who could 'sense' their limitations like that. Prodigies, they were called. Gifted among mages, regardless of Tier and affinities.

A smile formed on his face. If he was a prodigy, then he could use that to his advantage. No one needed to know what he could do. He could even practice magic openly, then return to a previous point in time, and no one would be any wiser, because his practice had only happened for himself, not for anyone else.

A useful spell, and one which would enable him to pursue his goals without anyone growing suspicious. If they did, he could simply return to a previous point and fix things so that they weren't.

Deciding to skip his morning exercise without Tyler around, Ryan entered his closet and dressed, picking out his outfit by feel. It might result in something that didn't match, but no one would comment. Anyone who mattered wouldn't care, either, and likely understand it was due to Tyler being ill.

If they were so petty as to think that a blind person were incapable just because they couldn't pick a matching outfit, well, screw them and their lives.

Dressed, Ryan left his room, remembering as he walked about the packages. Deciding to go to the garden instead, he made his way there, navigating carefully until he reached the stone bench at the pond. Sitting upon it, Ryan listened to the sounds of the pond.

As he relaxed, he felt a light breeze upon his face and hands. Focusing on that, he wondered once again what it would be like to command the wind. What did it look like, as the wind touched the flowers and leaves?

His mind began to wander, eventually coming to a word: elemental.

More specifically, the elementals, magical creatures made of an element. Tales of them entranced the blind man when he was a little boy. They had no eyes, so they could not see. Despite that, they navigated with perfect ease, doing as they pleased. The common theory was that rather than a sight, they could 'see' through their element.

A wind elemental 'saw' the air around them and how it diverted to adjust to solid items around them. A water elemental 'saw' liquids and where they were. Since the air generally had moisture in it, they could tell where items were by how the moisture in the air clung to places but didn't enter. A fire elemental 'saw' heat and its absence, granting it the ability to tell where something was by the shifts in temperature. An earth elemental 'saw' dirt, soil, stones, and metals around it. Since most living things contained minerals, it could sense where those were, and even detect walls – most of the time – by the wires within.

No one knew this for sure, as elementals generally didn't speak, but that was the widely-held theory. When he was younger, Ryan had even fantasized about being able to 'see' in that way.

What if that were possible? He was a Divine in all six elements, who was to say that he couldn't adapt to looking at the world through its elements rather than his eyes? Magic sometimes changed the body to adapt to it, which meant that even if the normal human brain wasn't designed for that kind of input, it was possible his own would adjust to adapt to the magical sight.

Focusing, Ryan found his eyes closing, something they often did when he thought deeply on things even though he didn't do it consciously. Feeling the breeze on his body, he reached out with his magic, still new to using it.

Rather than focusing on time, which he had wanted to play with, Ryan focused on the wind that touched him, on the bitter cold it held. Time slipped away from him as he focused, doing his best to create a sense his body didn't hold.

Though he was uncertain how long had passed, Ryan became certain he had succeeded the moment he could feel the wind moving around him. He could feel the way it brushed over the unmoving stone bench beneath him, how it felt as it touched the grass beneath him. He could even feel himself, which amused the teen.

His range extended only around five feet, but that didn't bother him. No, Ryan finally had a new sense, a way to see what was around him. And it was incredible, sending a thrill through the mage. He quickly shut it off and began to try it with the other elements.

Water came next, disorienting him when he succeeded. It was so similar to his wind sense, yet so vastly different at the same time. Rather than simply feeling it brush over the bench, he felt it cling to something, a void within its hold rather than a space it passed around. The plants around him had a bit of it within, and he could feel that moisture being slightly-frozen. He himself stood out, a form filled with water with a light void around much of himself. He and the plants stood out the most because he could sense the water within, giving him a rough form of how they looked from within as well as from the outside.

Fire was attempted after, and he was just as disoriented with water when he succeeded, but for other reasons. He could sense where warmth was lacking, with the bench beneath him the coldest of anything within his range. He himself radiated as a result of everything else around him being cooler, but what he found fascinating was that he could even sense the wind, in a way. Because he was sensing the heat – or lack of it – he could sense the coldness in the air, which changed with the wind and was inconsistent. That was something he knew he would need to adjust to.

Earth came fourth, Ryan unable to fully describe how he felt everything in his range. A lot was missing. He could hardly sense the plants, but he could sense how they disturbed the soil beneath him with their roots. He showed up in his own vision, and he could make out his veins because of what he knew was the iron in them. He wasn't expecting that, though he had when he used water as a sense, as veins were full of liquid. The stone bench, however, came to him with crystal clarity. He could make out every little detail on it, the intricate patterns carved into it during its crafting.

Canceling that, Ryan gave energy a try, and the area around him lit up with his new sense. Not much actually had it in a high quantity, but there was enough with some that he could examine things. The grass beneath him and flowers behind him were visible through their electricity, and he himself even registered as he realized he was largely seeing his own nervous system.

Deciding that was neat, Ryan ended it and looked with the sixth and final element. He put it off until last because he was uncertain how it would work for him. Light was a finicky thing, after all, and in technicality, everything someone 'saw' had light in it. Would he see colors? Or would he see where light passed? How it touched things?

The answer came when he finally succeeded. He could 'see' where light was, what it touched and how intense it was. The vision was similar to his wind sense, only for the first time, he could 'see' colors. The color of the light itself.

Not that he knew what the colors were, though. Being blind, he had never learned them, only their names. He could make out the outlines of the grass, but not what color it was because the light that touched the grass was the same color as the light which touched him and the stone bench. It was all the same color to him.

Ryan began to play around with his 'sight', mixing the various ones to see how they interacted. That all came to an end, however, when he passed out. When the mage came to, he was laying in a bed, several voices overlapping each other as they bickered silently.

"Father?" Ryan spoke, and the voices stopped. "Where am I?"

"In your room," his father answered. Based on where the voice came from, Ryan figured his father had moved his chair to the side of the bed. "Are you okay? We just moved you in here, the family healer is on their way over, they aren't too far out now. You were only out for a few minutes."

"I'm fine," Ryan answered. "What time is it?"

"A little after three," his father answered.

Eight and a half hours. That was how long he had been at work with his magic. Eight and a half hours.

"That probably explains it," Ryan told his father. "I became focused on my thoughts, didn't realize how long had passed. I haven't eaten today."

He knew it was probably more than that. He had been playing with his magic, an unused muscle, and taking in senses his brain wasn't meant to handle – yet. He had no doubt overloaded himself, but he didn't wish to mention he could 'see' in a way. Not until he could expand his range and find out what else he could do.

However, he was hungry, and was feeling faint from that.

"Do you think," Ryan asked as he sat up on his bed. "Someone could send for some food? And has the healer arrived yet? I know Tyler was quite miserable when I spoke with him this morning."

"Go get Ryan something to eat," his father ordered someone, his voice aimed towards Ryan's door. "Nothing too heavy, we will be eating dinner in a couple of hours."

When he spoke after that, his voice was aimed at Ryan once more, the authority and command in it gone, replaced with the usual, loving tone his father used when he spoke with Ryan.

"Yes, Tyler is doing okay," his father said. "Our healer will take a look at him after he checks on you."

"Thank you," Ryan said.