"What do you want help with?" Meredith asked.

"I am able," Ryan explained. "To sense each of the six elements in a manner similar to the elementals. This means I am absolutely aware of the chosen elements within my range. It is not limited by a direct line, but rather, it's simply everything within my range. That would be something akin to three-dimensional viewing of everything, regardless of obstructions. At least, that's the best explanation I could come up with when thinking about it.

"However," he continued. "There are some downsides to it, particularly with the element of light. I'm aware I'm seeing color, but it's always the same color, and its intensity changes based on how much light is passing through. For instance, if I were to turn on my sense of light right now, I would 'see' outside more clearly than inside your car, as I know it's windows are tinted."

He didn't need to use his sense of light to know that, as tinted windows were a standard for important people such as Meredith and members of his own Family.

"Are you saying," she said. "That outside, where the sun is shining, is simply one big wash of a color for you?"

"Essentially," Ryan nodded. "I can adjust the sense of light so that I can only see what it's touching, which leaves a blank spot, an emptiness or void where light does not touch, as well as the space it passes through unhindered."

"You want me," she said. "To try and help you figure out how to view colors."

"Yes," Ryan answered. "I plan on going to a place with light elementals eventually, but I'm not sure how much use they might be for this."

"I see," she said. "I can try to help you, Ryan, but there is no guarantee for this."

"I'm aware of this," he responded. "This may be the most difficult sense to pull apart and train for me, which is why I'm doubtful the elementals will be too useful with learning specific colors."

"I can do my best," she told him.

The rest of their ride was made in silence, and once the car stopped and the pair had exited, Meredith led Ryan up a mountain. He assumed it was the mountain, as they had been ascending for the ride, and the walk was uphill. It took them a further eight minutes to reach their destination, and Ryan noticed what he assumed to be a stool through his senses of air and fire.

He sat upon it, then waited for Meredith to finish adjusting his position. For the first time, he was able to see what he knew was her easel and canvas, along with her supplies, which a guard had pulled out of the trunk of their car.

"You said," Meredith said as she began fixing up her palette, which involved squeezing out a thick liquid from several tubes into several spots on it. Ryan found that interesting, before remembering she was putting paint on it, which only mildly decreased his fascination with it. "That you can adjust the sense of light so that you only see what it touches, not where it passes?"

"Yes," Ryan answered.

"Are you running it right now?" She asked. "The way you said it made it sound as if you turn them on and off."

"I have my senses of fire and air on right now," he told her. "I can turn on my sense of light as well. I can sustain three senses for a period of time dependent on the range I have open. For twenty feet of space, I can sustain it for over an hour."

"Do each of these twelve spots look the same to you?" She asked, indicating the palette. "Erm. Can you-"

"I can sense it by the shifts in air and warmth," he told her. "Do you mean with the color of light I can see?"

"Yes," she answered, and he noticed her pause for a moment, then looked at her guards. "What we are discussing is one of his secrets. Everything related to this session that is not a normal course of events is part of his secret. In addition, there may be some elementals approaching. Do not panic, they are either here to watch us or to speak with Ryan, another of his secrets."

She turned her attention back to Ryan.

"With your sense of light," she indicated one of the spots. "Does this look the same color as the other spots?"

"It does," he answered.

Ryan waited as Meredith thought for a few moments.

"Ryan," she said. "Are you able to focus your sense of light into a narrow limit?"

"I've never tried that before," he answered. "But perhaps."

"Try it with this one," she pointed at the same one she had before. "And this one," she pointed at the next one after it. "Turn off your other senses to filter out everything but the light here."

He did as instructed, curious of why she wanted him to do that. Just in case, he stretched out his empathy to sense all minds near him. Nothing hostile, so he waited for the next part.

"Do they still look the same?" She asked.

"Yes," he answered.

"The light looks the exact same?" She asked. "The same intensity for both?"

"Yes," he answered.

"Okay," she said. "Are you able to limit your sight to only the two spots? That is, without seeing any light other than for those two items?"

"I've never attempted that before," Ryan frowned. "Why?"

"Just a theory I have," she answers. "It may help us, if you're able to."

"Give me a few minutes," he told her. "Your paint won't freeze, will it?"

"It will not," she answered.

"Okay," he said.

Ryan began to focus on the first spot she had indicated, focusing on adjusting his sense of light so that he only saw the spot of paint, and not anything between him and it.

"I'm going to set this down," she told him, and he heard the sound of the palette being set on what was probably another stool, set out by her guards. "So that you can take your time without it moving so much. I'll begin doing the painting. Don't move too much from your current position."

"Understood," Ryan said, then continued focusing on the paint.

He wasn't sure how long it took him to adjust his sense of light, but when he succeeded in isolating only the light of the paint, he allowed himself a small smile.

"Stop the smile," Meredith said.

"Sorry," he quickly corrected his face. "I succeeded."

"That's good," she said. "Try doing it for each spot of paint you can, I'm sure you're only managing it for one right now."

Ryan snorted, then resumed focusing on that single spot of paint. Seeing only its light, he noticed a difference in it from the normal color he saw. The teen thought back to what he knew about colors and light. Colors were the result of the reflection of light upon a surface.

It was then he realized what Meredith had thought. Because he was seeing light itself, he wasn't seeing just the reflected light, but all light that passed through that space. Narrowing down his sense of light to a single object, however, meant he was only seeing the light reflected.

At least, in theory. It was also possible he was seeing the light which wasn't reflected. Or he was still seeing everything, but the change in his focus caused it to look differently.

Deciding to continue adjusting his sense of light, Ryan expanded it to the next blob of paint, and he compared the differences between them. Time passed, and Meredith did not attempt to speak with him again, so he let her continue her work undisturbed. She had likely forgotten his lesson, and so he let her be. It gave him more time to play with and adjust his sense of light.

Minutes turned into hours, and Ryan continued to make adjustments to his sense of light. It gave him a mild headache, but he knew he'd be fine within half an hour of when he stopped adjusting his magical sense, as it happened when he adjusted the others, too.

By the time Meredith finished, Ryan had opened up his sense of light to a forty-foot radius and could see her painting of him. She had captured him in his current position, leaning slightly forward with his head facing a little to the right and down, as if looking at something. The mountain rose up in the background, snow blanketing everything but him.

There was also a trio of fire elementals thirty feet behind Ryan, which he was communicating with through air, having turned back on his senses of air and fire. As fascinated as he was by the changes in temperature of the fire elementals, he was even more amazed by the changes to their colors, even if he didn't know what they were.

"My apologies," Meredith told Ryan. "I forgot about our lesson."

"No worries," he smiled. "You seemed quite into the painting, so I left you be. The elementals and I were discussing the probability of Tyler having sex while I'm out here with you."

The elementals were insistent the probability was high, while Ryan knew his servant well enough to know that Tyler wouldn't do that. He was too loyal to the job and to Ryan to risk termination, which meant he wouldn't have sex without Ryan's permission. The situation with Bethany was one of the rare cases where Tyler would, and Ryan was trying to explain that to the elementals when Meredith had finished.

He wasn't sure why the elementals brought the subject up, and wasn't sure he wanted to ask, knowing how elementals were. He had also tried to end the conversation several times, but the elementals continued to push it until he gave his response to the questions.

"Were you able," Meredith said. "To isolate the two blobs of paint?"

"Actually," Ryan answered. "I think I can see the colors now, as long as I limit myself to just my sense of light. I spent most of the time you were painting adjusting my sense of light based on a conclusion I came to from your instructions. It will still need some work and adjusting, but I can deal with that as time goes on."

Ryan turned off his sense of light, then dipped his head slightly.

"Thank you for the help, Meredith," he told her. "I likely would have taken much longer to realize what I did if it hadn't been for your attempt at helping me."

"You're welcome," Meredith said. "Let's get those pictures taken."

Ryan moved into the positions Meredith guided him into, which included moving to different spots and facing different locations, to give different backdrops. When they finished, she packed up her things, and the elementals spoke to Ryan once more.

"Blind Inferno," one of the fire elementals said. "Will you be back again? You mentioned you wished to learn magic from us."

"Yes," Ryan responded through his air. "Though it will not be as easy to train with you as I did with the elementals on the islands."

"We are patient," it responded. "It is you who sets deadlines for yourself. You are an unaging immortal, Blind Inferno. Take your time."

Nearly immortal, Ryan thought.

There was always the possibility that someone like him arrived and took issue with him, then killed him. For that, he wanted to train up stronger, and fast. That would require him revealing to Tyler about his senses, however, and he wanted to wait on that in the current reset.

"I will return when I can," Ryan told them, then turned his attention back to Meredith, speaking aloud once more. "Let us return to the lodge."

Meredith let her guards pack up her stuff as they returned to the car, and the ride back to the lodge was made in silence as Ryan napped lightly. There, Ryan was immediately approached by a figure he quickly recognized as Tyler.

"Are you okay?" Tyler asked. "I know you were with Lady Meredith, but-"

"I'm fine," Ryan smiled. "How were things here? How did your ski trips go?"

"They went well," Ryan sensed his servant's happiness as his servant led him to a table in the nearby dining hall, where two girls were seated, plates of food and glasses of liquid in front of them. Ryan sat at the empty spot to his servant's right. "Michael and I did five runs in total, then there was a snowball fight with some of his younger cousins that we got dragged into. One of the guards informed me before that about the commission, or I would not have participated."

"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself," Ryan told him. "You seem to be hitting it off with Michael pretty well. You used to be so stiff with him, anytime he's visited."

"I was in my role as your servant then," Tyler told Ryan. "When Michael and I are hanging out, I'm simply a guest from the Family that he's entertaining. It might have taken me a few days to really grasp that, but it's easier to relax if I remind myself that you want me to enjoy this and not worry about you when I'm not in my role as servant."

"That's good," Ryan said. "Who are our guests?"

"How did you know?" Tyler asked, confusion in his mind.

"They put their silverware down when we sat down," Ryan said. "And one of them has taken a drink for their glass. I heard all of that."

"Right," Tyler said as a servant approached and put a glass in front of Ryan. Immediately, Tyler moved it and grabbed one of Ryan's hands, moving it to the glass. "They were here when Michael and I returned, and we started talking while I was waiting for you. They had only just arrived, and were relaxing in the general space of the lodge out of boredom, due to the hour."

"Oh?" Ryan picked up the glass and took a drink, then set it back down. Water, as he'd suspected. "You've been hit on by at least a dozen women since we arrived, Tyler, and you decide to hang out the first time you meet these two?"

"It's not actually the first time we've met," Tyler informed Ryan. "We were classmates in high school. The lady on your right is Amy, and the one on my left is Nadia. Is everything alright?"

Ryan realized he had frowned a little, but it wasn't without reason. He knew those names, because it wasn't the first time he had met them, either, even if they had never met him. There was little chance it was coincidence that they shared names with other former classmates of Tyler's Ryan had met, especially as they were met in a pair.

The two girls there were the same two former classmates of Tyler's they had met at the mall on the first time he lived that day. If they had arrived a few hours before dinner, then they arrived at the same time they were still with Ryan and Tyler in the first run of the day.

An encounter where they showed no sense of urgency, where they had made no mention of planning on visiting the Srentas resort.

They showed up at the mall when Ryan and Tyler were there. They showed up at the ski lodge when Ryan and Tyler were there. Both public places where anyone could visit, even if the latter required money.

He was willing to hazard a guess that had it been possible, they would have shown up at the Mieria Islands, too. There was no possible way they could have been at both places on the same day in two different runs unless they were exempt like elementals… or if they were following him.

"No," Ryan smiled. "I just realized that I hadn't eaten lunch, and I'm not certain how long it will be before dinner arrives, as they make it fresh. Fifteen to twenty minutes, no doubt."