A comfortable warmth began vibrating through Lleu’s arms and he felt something appear in his hands as he tumbled through the air. By instinct, he grabbed onto whatever it was as to slow his fall. The sensation of a quickly stiffening thick sludge covered his fingers as they found perches to grasp.

Lleu looked down, his feet were still dangling a good pace above the ground but he was thankfully no longer moving. Instead, he was hanging by his hands, swinging slightly as if holding onto a ledge.

Looking up he saw the strange material he had caught, it was absolutely nothing. His hands seemed to be firmly gripping the air which glowed with a faint green tint around his fingers.

As sudden as his realization that he, in fact, had nothing to hang on to his grip vanished and he dropped down the final stretch. Looking up angrily from the crouch he had landed in Lleu said,

“You could have explained before throwing me off!”

The laughing face of Manix looking over the edge next to Ria’s and Aelan’s and replied,

“I could have been wrong, didn't want to get your hopes up.”

Lleu thought to himself that there must be something a little wrong with Manix’s head, possibly he had been dropped as well?

The three pathfinders above withdrew themselves, heading back down the ladder, as Lleu walked past the indignant looking enquian who must not have enjoyed being startled by a falling trainee and reentered the building.

“Just like shadow, air is another one of the affinities that is fairly rare, although it isn't quite are rare as shadow is. One of the common ways of using it is making areas of air that act as if it were solid, this lets you create invisible shapes to interact with.” Aelan stated with an ecstatic expression.

“I was hoping you would be able to use them, these bracers have a very high affinity requirement so they also provide you with an abundance of power to work with. I don't even know if I could use the things, even if I could squeeze my arms into them.” He explained while showing how his forearms were much too thick to have the slightest chance at equipping the totem set.

“Well this has been damn successful so far”, Ria happily said, “Now the last one, let's see what Aelan brought out.”

Aelan reached over and picked up the box that remained. With a slight click, it opened to reveal a pair dried up talons connected to small rings. Curious, Lleu reached in and picked them up. A feeling of rushing warmth spread from where the talons contacted his skin and rushed up his arm. Lleu could feel his hair begin standing up, each strand trying to keep away from the others at all cost.

The three pathfinders burst into laughter.

“He looks ridiculous.” laughed Ria

“Like an angry kitten, all puffed up” followed Manix who was rolling around on the floor in laughter.

Lleu dropped the talons.

Aelan, also laughing, began to explain

“That totem pair used to belong to my own mentor while he still lived. They are lightning type totems, usually used to make barricades or projectiles to fry aberrations at a distance.”

“Did they also make his hair stand up?”

“Only when he took them off or put them back on, not that he did that much, they are meant to be worn permanently as earrings.”

Hoping that if he was quick enough he wouldn't repeat the silliness Lleu quickly put the rings in each ear. During the process, the same raising of hair occurred but once both of the earrings were in, the rushing warm feeling they brought abruptly vanished and all hair standing ceased. Instead, a brand new sensation popped up in the back of Lleu’s mind. It was as if a tiny vibrating ball of light was sitting in the back of his skull, there were no physical changes but it felt truly real.

Lleu tried mentally prodding the ball and in response, he felt energy surge into himself and coalesce in his arms. Strands of lightning immediately began appearing and coiled into towards his hands where they quickly merged into a growing ball.

BOOM

Manix’s eyebrows were gone, the pot that had once had stew in it was turned over, and snowflakes lazily drifted through a brand new hole in the ceiling that had not been there a minute ago.

Once again the laughter started. The three pathfinders had run for cover as soon as Lleu had begun forming the lightning ball. Now with the danger passed they came out of their hiding places and seemed to find the entire thing, especially considering Lleu’s tendency to cause break things or cause explosions, extremely funny. The laugher simply increased once they noticed the lack of eyebrows on Manix who must not have been fast enough in his leap for safety.

Catching his breath Aelan laughed,

“Well I did tell you that he blew up Lania, looks like he has a talent for it.”

Hours passed with the three experienced pathfinders showering Lleu with advice on how to use his totem. What each one said seemed completely different from the next. In the end, Lleu ended up with a solid idea of the styles the three used during combat at least one of which he should try to adopt.

Aelan's style was filled with quick movements and focused heavily on dodging while his levitated spears constantly attacked.

Ria seemed to favor sneak attacks and confusion as her only affinity of any significant strength was shadow, however, she was extremely powerful in it. Her method of choice employed dozens of clones made of the shadowy clouds to surround and disorient her targets while she pelted them with a barrage of arrows from her short bow.

Manix was an anomaly compared to the other two. He preferred to launch himself at enemies using bursts of flame, his main affinity was fire which was very unusual for one in the pathfinders, and then would try to beat them to a pulp using a massive war hammer.

Just as their explanations had come to a close the sounds of hooves could be heard from outside the building. It seemed others had arrived.