Page 50 of The Chaosweaver's Daughter
“Of course.” He demonstrated, lifting a medium-sized rock from the dam, and permitting a miniature waterfall to pop up, before he replaced the stone. Miss Kiappa was impressed, he was fairly certain. “What of your magic? Does a naughtbirintruly create from nothing?”
She laughed. “I thoughttishtafirwas the new word? I don’t know thatanythingcan come from nothing, and we certainly don’t make whatever element we’re manipulating in nature—Thanin had that bit wrong. Our illusions, the shells we make, come from the natural chaos of the world.”
He blinked. Miss Kiappa had said they didn’t use their wells to operate their magic, but they didn’t makeanyof their own power? Only gathered it from outside themselves? How had he not known that? She was a bloodybook. A wealth of knowledge Hothan had passed to her that never got written down, because that man believed experience trumped all else. “Tell me more. What makes you call it chaos?”
“Mmm, I could have the twins explain it to you, it would be an excellent assessment tool...” Her eyes drifted to where said children were engrossed in a “wild jumps” contest. “No,” she mumbled her decision, then launched into an explanation that not only impressed him but forced him to revise his entire understanding ofnaughtbirins,or as he’d recently come to prefer, but was soon left reconsidering,tishtafiran.
Gesturing wildly as she spoke, Nesrina kept splashing water into his face, forcing him to swipe at his eyes, time and again. Like she forgot hewasan elemental mage, she even offered him an explanation of his own magic. If it had been Isahn, or Hevva, or anyone else trying to tell him howheworked, he’d have scoffed. But hearing her speak so passionately was worth it.
“In my understanding, elemental mages control the flow of power from within, from your wells. When your power is used up, it’s gone. You can’t create any more air or move it around, because your well’s dry until you regenerate. Our resource, the chaos”—she spun her finger in the air—“it’s external, not internally generated. It’s everywhere, all around us, all the time. When I teach the twins, we work with manageable amounts of it, like from a candle flame. It’s more straightforward for them to manipulate.” She punctuated her explanation with a crooked grin that made his heart somersault. Nesrina’s eyes grew unfocused for a moment as she lost herself to thought. “I’m also trying to sort out the pairing problem. It’s difficult, since I don’t have one myself.”
“What’s the pairing problem?” His limbs hummed as the excitement of a good conversation on a thrilling topic took hold. He enjoyed the buzz.
“We usually come in pairs. I’m an exception,” she explained. “Sibling sets can create stronger illusions together. Most of the time, they’re born years apart, like my father and my aunt. The eldest trains the youngest.” She raised her brow and side-eyed the twins.
“Not with them.”
“Not with them. But what’s a little added challenge?”
“So, you usually create an illusion, or an object, alone, but siblings can do that together? How?”
Her sigh told him he was opening a can of worms. “Yes. By imagining the exact same thing at the exact same time. It’s a skill that normally takes ages to build, but the twins have done it inadvertently. Worse”—she lowered her voice to a whisper—“I have no experience with it. I should write to my aunt.”
He nodded, trying to think of a suitable follow-up question, then gulped, losing his train of thought when she began bouncing, pushing off the bottom with her feet, then dropping down, then pushing up, over and over again. Her breasts bobbed, cresting the surface each time she rose. “Tell me more,” Kas croaked. Not the well-thought-out inquiry he’d been aiming for, but it would do.
“You’ve read Thanin’s article.” She glanced up at him.
Up and down, up and down.
“It was pretty accurate to my experience. Like elemental mages, our capability depends on our inherited power cap, but we don’t have to stop and recharge the way you do. This is why learning control has been such an integral part of my lessons. They don’t have a well to run dry if their magic goes wild, they can only stop themselves.”
Her gaze left his face, focused on nothing at all as her teaching voice transitioned into her thinking-aloud tone he’d come to find so endearing. “I don’t think Thanin’s atishtafir,or I believe it would’ve informed his work differently.” She found his eyes again, the tutor resurfacing. “You create chaos too; all elemental mages do. For example—” Miss Kiappa’s eyes widened slightly, and she dunked out of sight.
Trying to follow her thought process was fascinating. Why had he tried to convince himself she was dull? He scoffed.
She reappeared with an appealing little gasp that captured his attention, as usual. “For example,” she started over, more certain this time as she met his gaze with conviction, “when we argued, a few weeks ago...”
“In the library?”
She nodded and a delicate blush climbed her bouncing bosom—she’d started that damned bobbing again.“Youwere bombarding me withchaos.” Her tone was mildly accusatory as that delicious flush reached her rounded cheeks. “I drew from it to create a windbreak.”
“Oh, so you did that on purpose?” Kas teased, mouth quivering as he bit back a smile.
She dunked underwater again, the bubbles breaking the surface her response.
With his arms crossed over his chest, he waited for Nesrina to come up for air. When she did, her eyes lingered on his pectorals, highlighted by his stance.
She tried to force her gaze off of him, twice, before a look of frustration crossed her features, and she focused resolutely on his chin.
Kas considered vexing her further, maybe flexing an arm, but decided he’d rather listen to her speak. “Have I seen you make anything else?” he asked with genuine curiosity.
She chewed one side of her bottom lip before replying, “Well, yes. This bathing costume’s made from a bit of energy from the stream.”
“That’s not real?” he squeaked.
She laughed, and the tinkling sound sent a shivering pulse straight from the bottom of his stomach to the tip of his—
“I needed something to wear. I couldn’t be out here in nothing but my shift.”
