Page 37 of House of Ydril

And I do. I get into a different stance, the Lion this time, and I try to make the rock into an extension of myself. I repeat to myself that the point is to be forceful, to invoke the active energies of the universe.

This time, I don’t even hit the target.

“Go back to Meditative,” Moswen says with determination in her voice.

I want to groan, but I don’t. Instead, I focus on following her orders. But something’s still off. It just doesn’t feel right, I keep thinking as I prepare to give it another shot.

So I decide to go in another direction. And I choose to keep my mouth shut because I don’t want Moswen to laugh in my face because of how stupid my idea is.

Luckily, what I have in mind doesn’t require me to take a different stance. I just keep a different kind of image in mind and tap my Element rune.

And I shut my eyes tight, for some reason that I honestly can’t explain.

When I open them, I see the rock lift off the ground and fly straight into the center of the target.

And at first, there’s silence. Then a quiet, “Wow,” coming from Nuala’s mouth.

I turn to grin at my companions. To my surprise, Moswen is smiling as she glides closer to me. She looks visibly relieved. “You see, I told you you just needed to keep at it. Earth can be a stubborn element, but once you understand it…”

“Oh, I didn’t use Earth. I find it so rigid.” I pause, scratching my head as if I was caught doing something wrong. “And Air is so much softer.”

Nuala gives a low whistle, but Moswen is just staring at me.

“Let me be clear,” she says, her eyes narrowing. “To manipulate the rock, you used the air around it?”

I nod.

To my surprise, Moswen lets out a chuckle. Quiet, perfectly controlled and a little sad, but still. “I’m sorry, Quinn. It’s just, you haven’t even mastered your first Element and now it turns out you can use a second one. It’s a bit unusual, I have to say.”

“Well,” I start, letting out a chuckle as well. It’s just that mine is a bit embarrassed. “Do you think it increases my chances of surviving the First Round?”

She nods, smiling happily.

“My dear Moswen and my darling Fionnuala,” I say as I pat Nuala roughly on the shoulder and send a gentle air pat in Moswen’s direction, “that’s all that fucking matters.”

Of course, that’s not the end of this day’s torture. I don’t have any classes on Mondays so I keep training until my muscles start threatening to give out. But I’m happy. And I hadn’t even realized it until that moment, but I’ve been living in constant dread of getting killed at the Trials. Of course, this doesn’t mean I won’t be. But my chances are a lot better today than they were yesterday.

So when I finally pack Moswen up and we leave the graveyard, I’m on top of the world. I don’t even mind it when Nuala says, “The Blood Ritual. You forgot to tell Moswen that you’ve finished going through that last book she assigned to you.”

“You know what, Nuala?” I reply, throwing her a grin. “I think I’ll choose not to think about the fucking Blood Ritual until after the First Round. After all, it seems I’ll actually get to see the day.”

She laughs, shaking her head and opening her mouth to say something either snarky or encouraging, when we hear it. Thunderous cheering from the direction of the training grounds.

“What the…” Nuala mutters, her eyes darting there as well.

Of course, we rush to see what’s going on. The training grounds are usually empty this late in the day. But now the warm, ethereal glow of dusk is falling not just on the beaten reddish ground, but on the bodies of students either sitting on the bleachers or fighting in the ring.

As we approach, I see Sarya, Harry, Zelda andLeoamong the ones fighting.

“The Vipers,” I whisper. “I didn’t know Leo was one of them.”

Nuala pulls me by the upper arm, saying, “Don’t let them intimidate you.”

But it’s over. I’m coming even closer because I’ve already caught glimpses of several maneuvers that I don’t even know how to explain. At one point, I see a swarm of daggers being propelled after a puma so large it could swallow my head without even opening its jaw. It’s only after an entire minute that I realize that the daggers are actually slivers of stones controlled by Sarya herself.

“Come on, Quinn,” Nuala pleads with me, “what could possibly be the point of this?”

“I’m watching because I want to know as much as possible about more than half of my opponents.”

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