I opened my tunic and pressed the first of the cores against my chest. A ripple of power ran through me as I absorbed it, and I felt the new energy combine with what had come before. The other cores followed until I had absorbed all six. It was exhilarating to feel a new force within me, and I wondered what I might achieve this time.
I sat back, sword across my knees, as I watched the woods for any sign of danger.
“So, when will you fight the dreaded water spirit?” Nydarth’s voice entered my mind. “I very much despise that element. So wet. And so melancholic. Always dousing the passions of life.”
“As soon as I’m done with my watch,” I whispered. I didn’t want to wake the others.
I could hardly wait to fight the water spirit. Victory over the spirit would mean adding another element to my growing repertoire.
Although my eyes were glued to the thicket, my mind was elsewhere. I could feel the ebb and flow of magic in the Vigorous Zone, and at the heart of it was a great object of power. The Water Heart. It was the center of the glade and the reason why magical creatures appeared here. I felt its awesome energy flow over me and all around me as my vision shifted.
“Oh, shit,” I said, realizing now that my fight with the water spirit was happening already. “Vesma!” I yelled at her, and she roused from sleep. “I gotta go! Can you stay on watch?”
“Ugh,” she groaned and rubbed her eyes.
Before I could hear her reply, the world vanished from view, and I was underwater.
Chapter Two
I was completely submerged. Water soaked my clothes, filled my ears and my nose, and pressed in so completely that I felt as though I must be drowning. My heart pounded in my ears as I clawed for the surface.
Despite the pressure of my surroundings, I forced myself to stay calm and started swimming up. There had to be air here somewhere. All I had to do was find it.
My arms made swift, powerful strokes while my legs kicked hard. I dragged myself toward some imagined surface, and I desperately hoped I would find it. All around me was darkness, illuminated only by glowing points of light scattered like tiny stars through the gloom. I moved toward the lights and realized they were glowing stalactites made of ice. I didn’t feel the cold of the water, but I was definitely starting to worry about running out of air.
Something else appeared in the water above me—a surface like the ceiling of a cave. I swam toward the surface and found that it was a thick block of ice. I scrambled across the roof in search for a hole or cavity to climb out of, but I quickly realized it was an impossible task. The roof stretched away in every direction before curving down as an impermeable boundary.
I was stuck in an underwater cave with no way of reaching the air.
Fucking Kegohr. He’d said trying to gain an element without a teacher could be dangerous, and this futile situation had proven him right.
I wasn’t willing to give up yet, so I slammed my fists against the frozen ceiling. Despite how hard I struck, the ice didn’t give. I might as well have been punching a mountain, for all the good it did.
Terror gripped me as my lungs screamed with desperation. Air. I needed air. My mouth opened of its own accord, and I breathed in. Water flowed down my throat and into my lungs. I choked and retched as I tried to force the water back out, to breath in the air that wasn’t there. I closed my eyes, overcome by the sensation, suddenly sure that I was about to die.
Then, I opened my eyes and took in the gloom around me. I grounded myself in the ocean realm. The water wasn’t my enemy any more than it was my friend. It was the world through which I moved, the power with which I worked, the essence of the struggle.
With that realization, the sense of drowning passed. I was one with the water, and it was one with me. I breathed as easily as if I was on land, the sea flowing in and out as refreshing as a breath of brisk mountain air.
Tiny bubbles floated out from my face, and I realized that I could breathe water like a fish. I reached up to my throat and felt little incisions. This spirit world had gifted me with gills. I wasn’t sure why, but I assumed the spirit realm would always grant me the necessary tools to survive in a new elemental domain. Defeating the realm’s champion was still up to me.
My pulse calmed, and I continued breathing as though I wasn’t treading water in the world’s deepest ocean. In place of the fear that had threatened to overwhelm me, I found myself awash with excitement. Few things in life were more satisfying than mastering a new skill, and now, I had the opportunity to learn the water element.
After my adventures in the realms of wood, fire, and ash, I knew what to look for. Somewhere in this underwater expanse would be an elemental spirit. I would have to defeat this creature in unarmed combat to access water magic.
I’d learned that Vigor was impossible to use in these spirit realms, and the only weapons I had available were ones I could gather from the environment. I couldn’t see the surface or the bottom of the ocean, nor were there any lifeforms swimming around me. I would just have to rely on basic martial arts, along with these gills I’d sprouted, but I doubted they would help
