Archpriests office, Hammers of Light

"What do you mean 'you LOST her'!"

The Archpriest's fist slammed onto the desk before him as he continued ranting at the cowering Albert in front of him.

"Do you have any idea how much cost is involved with her? I was forced to have one of the most powerful seers in the order put to death to keep the truth about her secret. The most powerful sorcerer in twenty generations. I mean you must understand this, you were the one who suggested we put her birth town to the torch! No relatives to distract from her teachings. Now? We have nothing! Nothing but everyone else trying to dig up what were trying to find. What was the point of all the secrecy then!"

By now, the Archpriest was red in the face. Albert scrambled, trying to figure out what to say. "But... Sir. She hasn't awoken, no one has who is older then sixteen, at least not without showing some signs of mana before hand. Isn't it possible that kidnapping her changed her Fate?"

Much to Albert's relief, the Archpriest cooled off.

"Don't you think I didn't consider that? It's true that is a possibility, but stealing her away should not have changed anything grand about her Fate. No it must be something else. What am I missing!"

Serena's jaw went slack as she looked at the testing orb. It wasn't one of the fancier ones, it only gave the type of magic someone could wield and general level of power. But the blinding red for had to be unusual.

"Damn, so red means you are a sorcerer, and the brightness indicates power. A candle of brightness is enough to do some minor tricks, while most adventures have about a campfire. I've never seen one that bright however." Ragthur explained, looking quite impressed. "Though, I should note that power is no indication of control. Doesn't matter if you have oceans of mana if you can only use a puddle at a time. Just means you never get tired."

Serena took her hands off the orb, then asked "So how do we find my elemental affinity?"

Ragthur grinned, showing far too many teeth.

"The old fashioned way."

"When you said the old fashioned way, I didn't think that meant you would beat it out of me." Serena commented as she looked at the field of spinning poles, each with arms protruding at different hights, with several painted red around the edge.

"It's tried and tested," Ragthur defended himself, "I have a book with the indicators of every known affinity, I just need to see you use your magic in every possible way. This just forces you to do things you haven't ever thought of with it. I'll light up one of the red ones, you just have to attack it a different way each time."

Serena sighed before relenting and stepping forward. Ragthur turned to a wall of runes nearby and pressed one. A beacon of light rose from a pole on the far side. She focused, drawing shadows around her before lunging forward.

In the field she started to weave around the arms. A quarter of the way across however she found herself presented with one at head, waist, and foot level coming from different directions. Drawing sharply on her mana, she passed through them like air.

Moving to the pole, she simply lobbed a bolt of mana at it. Spinning around she saw the next one was on the opposite side again. Her eyes narrowed in concentration as she moved once more.

Panting, Serena looked up as the final pole started to shine. She had run out of attacks three poles ago, but had still managed to use different methods. She had been more surprised then Ragthur when the shadow the last one cast had leaped up to stab it, she had just told the shadow 'kill it!' after all.

Finally seeing the last one she shouted, "Just... die!"

A wave of nothing leapt from her fingers, covering everything in her path. When it faded the poles it hit were gone and the ground seemed to be as smooth as glass.

Then the exhaustion came. Serena collapsed on the spot, that one attack had drained almost three quarters of her mana. The entire rest of the course had used less then a tenth.

Ragthur walked up to her in the now still arena. "Well, good news is that I figured out your affinity. Bad news is that it's so stupidly rare that there is no way you'er finding a teacher. Greetings mighty Void sorcereres."

Serena looked up, confused. "Void? Not Shadow?"

"The book says that Void looks like Shadow at first glance, but that they can also affect the Void. I suspected it when you first phased out to avoid getting hit, but that last attack sealed the deal. I don't know if you noticed, but you spoke in Voidsong there."

"Voidsong? Um... Like this?" Serena was confused. She had never heard of Void as an affinity before. Or a language of the Void.

Ragthur shuddered, "That language there. Please don't do that again though. Now Talsira and Hiemal should be here by now, do you still want to meet them?"

"Yes, but not right now. I just want to go home and sleep."

Landing, Serena moved into her home for the last several months. The Shadows had been difficult to discover how to manipulate, but Ragthur had said it was the Void that would truly feel right.

Serena started moving into it like she did when stepping through walls. Concentrating on going deeper, she watch as the world fell away. As everything disappeared (or rather, she did) the world opened up to her. Shifting her focus to the hidden room where she kept her supplies, everything returned in a rush.

Standing in the new room, Serena felt strangely happy.

It's just as easy as breathing. And it felt like home. Like reality has been suffocating me.

With new understanding of herself, Serena moved to her bedroll to sleep. Wondering to herself if she would ever be able to stay in the Void long enough to sleep there instead.