16. Element: Air

Ten minutes later, Ardan was beginning to panic. Yes, he’d figured out that air magic worked the same as water - the basics, at least. But now, crouched in the corner of the room whispering with each other, the two came across a problem. The problem was simple. Since there was too much air, it was incredibly difficult to isolate one part to bend. Burst was not an option, especially since they weren’t exactly supposed to be practicing magic. Strangely, air was more slippery than water, and Ardan had a hard time grasping the concept.

“Gah! I can’t do it! There’s too much!” He flung his head back and shook his shaggy hair wildly.

Meanwhile, Shiloh seemed to have gotten the hang of it rather quickly. However, he seemed to only be able to create a sphere of swirling air above his palm. When Ardan asked how he had managed that so quickly, he responded with a basic, and very useless; “I dunno.”

Reminds me of Halcyon…

Suddenly, the interior doors swung open, Leo and Elaine striding through. A burst of chatter filled the air. Ardan heard snippets of the other student’s conversations, but not much, since he was away from most of them.

“...what a tryhard…”

“...who’s she trying to impress?”

Leo did that hand signal again, and his voice boomed over all the others. “Hush. Who wants to go next?”

A particularly pimply boy with red hair stuck his hand up. “Sir, I saw those two in the corner over there doing magic. That’s not allowed, isn’t it? They should be punished.”

Ardan seethed with anger and clenched his fists. Shiloh, on the other hand, opted for a more direct approach. In the form of a middle finger in the air. Leo’s expression changed from one of happiness to amusement. But as he glanced at Ardan, it transformed once more, into seriousness.

“Since you’re so eager you have to disobey the rules, why don’t you do your test now?”

The crowd’s whispers began to increase in volume.

Shiloh nudged Ardan’s arm and signalled to Leo with his head. “Go.” He whispered.

Taking in a large gulp, Ardan slowly stood up and trudged towards the door. On the way there, he glanced back at Shiloh, who had an encouraging look on his face. As he passed Elaine, the girl who had gone before him, she made eye contact and whispered in his ear; “He’s nice, but don’t disrespect him.”

“Wha-?”

But before he could ask what she meant, he was whisked away through the door, a gnarly hand gripping his forearm.

“Let’s see what you can do, then.” Leo said, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.

Ardan was confused. “See if I can do what?-” He paused as he looked around the room.

Directly in front of him was a large, wooden platform. White, draping pieces of fabric hung from the ceiling above it, thick enough so that Ardan couldn’t see through them.

“What is that?” He asked softly as he stepped onto the platform, stroking the coloured cloth.

“The test. Go into the centre. You’ll know it’s the centre when the cloth turns red. When you’re in there, perform ‘burst’. I’ll be watching from above.”

“Ok…” Ardan replied slowly, walking into the fabric jungle carefully. As he pushed away the first of the material, Leo called him again.

“Wait. Answer me this first. Why did you feel the need to practice air magic outside? Do you not know how to do it?” He questioned Ardan suspiciously.

Shiloh’s words echoed in his head. Everyone thinks orphans are good for nothing troublemakers.

“Yes. I mean, no. I know how to do it, that’s what I’m saying.” Ardan stumbled over his words, palms beginning to sweat.

Before Leo could prod any further, Ardan dived into the masses of cloth. True to his word, the hanging rags eventually turned from white, to blue, and then to red. Once he was sure he was somewhere near the centre, Ardan stopped.

“Move a little to the right.” A commanding voice said from above.

He glanced up, only to spy a particular old monk floating over him.

“How are you doing that?” Ardan asked, stunned, intrigued, and excited at the same time.

“Move a little to the right.” Leo repeated, ignoring his questions.

Grumbling a little, he did as commanded. “Is this alright?”

Leo nodded, and spread his arms open. “You may continue.”

Alright. Now play it cool, Ardan, play it cool. I’m just lucky he made me do ‘burst’ first. Ardan peeled his eyes away from the flying man and closed his eyes. Palm outstretched in front of his chest, he took a deep breath and activated element sense.

“Just like manipulating water…” He whispered under his breath, and steadied himself for the explosion that was about to come.

The air touched his skin playfully, then darted off, only to be replaced by more. It was all around him. A little grunt escaped his lips while Ardan clenched his fists and-

Thwip.

One of the rags dangled in front of his eyes, tickling his nose. Another thwacked against his back, disturbed by the little air movement he’d created.

“Was that it?” Leo asked from above, writing something down in a notebook.

“N-no sir!” Ardan called out desperately. “I was distracted by these things.” He grabbed the nearest cloth and held it out to the master.

“Well, hurry up then.” Leo replied, spectacularly displaying an annoyed expression.

Fidgeting a little, Ardan turned his attention back to the air. Body, still. Hand, tense. Eyes, closed.

Mind, calm.

Burst.

The air rippled around his body, his splayed palm the epicenter of the explosion. Water had been nothing compared to this. His clothes yanked in the opposite direction, dragged backward by a tremendous amount of pressure. The hanging flags blew wildly in the wind.

- Alert! -

You have learnt the sub-skill [Air Manipulation].

Instead of feeling exhausted from the amount of effort, Ardan felt ecstatic. Once again, he had proved to himself that he was capable of performing magic.

“How was that?” Ardan called up to Leo, who looked unimpressed.

“Do you want to try again?”

Ardan was confused. “Uh, what?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself, please. Do you want to try again?” Leo said once more, this time a little harsher. “You get three attempts for each section. Your first wasn’t anything great, so I’m asking if you want to attempt it again.”

That wasn’t ‘anything great’? Where was the nice old man from before?

Sighing, Ardan looked at his palms, then at his fatigue. He still had four more elements to go- two of which he’d need to learn the skill for. Currently, his fatigue rested at a measly five, but no doubt that would rise in the following hours. So far, this system was proving more of a drawback than an advantage.

“No, I’m ok. I think that’s the best I’ll be able to do.” Ardan said, trying to put it politely.

Raising an eyebrow, Leo began to float away. “Alright. Then let’s move on to the next test.”

Ardan wiped his hands onto his jeans and followed the master out. There wasn’t really anything he could do about the situation right now. His only choice now was to just go with the flow. As he exited the mass of hanging clothes, he smirked in disbelief.

On what Ardan assumed to be the opposite side of the platform - since this was definitely not the side he had gone in from - lay a simple, yet familiar setup. Ten tables erected in varying distances, height and placement were spread out around the room. Upon the tables were multiple floating cups, also differentiating in sizes and colours. This reminded him of a game he used to play in the orphanage, where a group of friends would take turns trying to knock down cups. To be more specific, there were three cups on each table, the one in the centre coloured red. Depending on what table, the cups were spaced apart further or closer from each other.

“Stared enough yet?” Leo asked rudely, arms crossed and leaning against the wall.

Ardan responded, shaking his head slightly. He was beginning to hate this man. “Yes, sir.”

“Good.” Unfurling his arms, Leo gestured towards the test. “dtening.

“Try to hit all the red cups down. The red cups. Not the white ones. Understand?”

Rolling his eyes, he nodded once more. How old does he think I am?

“This is a test for control. Technically, you can use a burst, but it’s not recommended.” He pointed toward a crudely marked out area on the floor. “Now go for it. Please perform your magic in the red circle.”

A slight breeze brushed against Ardan’s hair, as he paced towards the circle. There was something strange about this old man- apart from the fact that he had something against Ardan.

Once he was in the designated spot, the nerves began to creep back. The one thing he’d been dreading. If he choked up now, he’d disappoint Leo - if he somehow hadn’t already. This time, he’d have to go in completely blind. Previous experience with water manipulation wouldn’t help him here.

Ardan activated element sense and slowed his breathing. Mentally feeling around in his head, he selected a portion of air directly under his palms and directed it forward, trying to form that sphere shape.

But there was wind. Wind that interfered with his still ball of air.

As it disintegrated, separating and floating away, he sighed. “Excuse me, sir. Why’s there wind in here?”

Leo raised an eyebrow. “What kind of question is that? When you’re using elemental magic outside, won’t there be a breeze? The environment doesn’t work for you. The breeze is to simulate the natural environment.”

That… actually makes sense. But even if it did, Ardan wasn’t happy. He huffed and shut his eyes once more. “If only the wind was blowing directly at the cups…” He muttered.

Can't you make your own wind?

Oh great. Now the system can talk to me too? His subconscious thought popped up just like the screen that had appeared. “Wait… what?”

“Is there a problem?” Leo asked, tapping his foot on the floor impatiently.

“No, sir.”

I'm Halcyon. We'll talk about this later. For now, try creating your own wind.

The screens disappeared as fast as they had appeared. But they’d done the job. Ardan’s brain was now working on another level.

Create my own wind… Create my own wind…

And then, as he exhaled heavily, he knew.

Instead of focusing on the air outside his body, he would focus on the air inside. If he could just direct it at the actual cup, it’d take less concentration to simply hold the shape together. He wouldn’t have to move it whatsoever, just keep the form and push.

Taking a deep breath, Ardan prepared himself, turning to face the nearest table. One… Two… Three! As a gust of wind shot out of his mouth, he extended his arms and did a small ‘burst’ to send it flying farther. The gust dipped a little as it flew, dropping just enough to land on the table and send the red cup spinning off of it.

One down, nine to go.

In the next few minutes, Ardan knocked down seven of the ten, the three furthest away being too far away for his propulsion to reach. However, his attempts hadn’t been completely clean. Apart from the red cups lying on the floor, there were several whites too. He hadn’t been completely accurate all the time. His fatigue was now at twenty.

Satisfied with his efforts, Ardan stepped out of the circle and walked toward Leo. “I’m done. I can’t hit the rest.”

Leo scribbled down something on his paper once more, then beckoned for Ardan to follow him. “The exit is this way.” He said gruffly.

Since he’d completed all the tests, Ardan decided to risk a question. “I know it’s not my place to ask this, sir, but could you inform me of what I did to annoy you?”

At this, Leo stopped, looked to the ceiling, and took a deep breath before turning around to face him. “I suppose you have a right to know. It’s not your fault.”

“What’s not my fault?” Ardan pressed on, completely forgetting about how he was supposed to be polite.

“You remind me of someone I knew a long time ago.” He paused, as if wondering whether or not to continue. “My daughter. You remind me of my daughter.” The old monk shook his head sadly. “I used to be proud of her. So beautiful, smart and gifted at magic. It runs in our family, you see.”

Ardan nodded, not really understanding how he’d reminded Leo of his daughter.

“I was so proud of her. So, so proud. Back then, before I became a monk, I worked in the army, meaning I wasn’t home for long periods of time. Right before the elves’ final stand in the human war, I was called out. At that time, she was already a young adult, hungry for knowledge. The last day I saw her, she was playing around with air, just like you were outside. Foolish old me decided not to teach her. The clearest thing I remember about her are her eyes. Green, like yours.”

He nodded once more, beginning to see where Leo was going with this. “So what happened? If I remind you of your daughter, you should treat me nicely, right?”

Leo shook his head. “Yes, I should. But my story isn’t finished yet. The humans weren’t dumb. They crept into our cities, stealing away hostages. She was one of them. Me, being out on the battlefield, didn’t hear the news. It was only when we, a specialized unit composed of a few elite members, broke into the human’s headquarters, where they were hiding their source of power. And I saw her. Not being held hostage. Not being kidnapped. Instead, she worked freely for them, developing their secret power, upgrading it for them. She was a traitor. And she never came home, instead falling in love with one of those damn monsters.”

“That’s… quite a story. I’m so sorry.” Ardan didn’t know what to say.

“That’s ok. I’m sorry for treating you like that. Just… the memories that I’ve tried to lock away for years came rushing back, the feelings along with them.”

Smiling politely, he shook his head. “It’s alright. You’ve been through a lot, and everyone has to let out the frustration sometimes.” Ardan’s mind raced back to yesterday afternoon with Sandria. “Did you ever see your daughter again?”

Leo nodded. “Two times after that incident. The first was at the national jail. She came barging in, demanding for everyone to be set free. There wasn’t a single person there who didn’t think she was crazy. While she was there, she made a speech, defending the scoundrel humans and going on about peace and equality. Despicable. The second time was several years after that. She came home one day, wounded, and pregnant. I don’t know what happened. Her sister came and took care of her wounds, but I haven’t seen her since. She’s someone I can never forgive. Ever.”

Leo’s shoulders trembled, and he wiped his eyes, trying to hide tears. “What’re you doing Leo? You’re a grown man crying in front of a kid. Come on.”

As the master sniffled away the last of his tears, Ardan stepped forward and embraced him gently in a hug. He didn’t say a word.

“Thank you, but I’m ok. I was wrong about you.” Leo gently broke off the hug and smiled at him for the first time.

“Don’t thank me. I wouldn’t be like this, if not for a certain someone. She taught me how to console people and show compassion.”

Leo’s smile grew wider. “Treasure them. There aren’t many people like that left in this world.” He advised. “What’s your name, boy? I need to put it on your report card.”

“Ardan Hue,” he said without hesitation.