The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 48

Part 9

“That’s the intuitive way, my sweet.” Alilia nodded with a loving smile.

“Valentia, before you cast with all your power,” Mark requested, “I’d like to see if you can separate your two sources. It might be handy sometime to be able to cast with just your elven magic, or with just your warlock’s power.”

“So you want me to lift the water with just my elven magic first?”

“Yes please.”

“Okay.” Valentia nodded as she turned to the water, then cast with a forceful gesture of both arms, as Alilia had done.

“Twenty-four and a half tons! Good girl!” Talia told her as soon as her lift had steadied.

She dropped it, and they all got a little sprayed from the splash since no one had shielded against it.

“That’s really hard.” Valentia stated, sounding a bit perturbed. “It was a lot harder to stop myself from using the other power than it was to do the lift. I’ll try to do it with just the warlock power.”

She cast again, held it, and released it. This time Alilia definitely felt the need to guard them from the huge splash.

“Sweet missing gods!” Talia breathed. “Over thirty-seven thousand tons! What an accomplishment for a one-year-old!”

“That was easier to ignore my wizard’s power than it was for my warlock’s power, but it was still way hard.” Valentia said, and took a deep breath, then let it out. “Look how much easier it is when I use them both like I normally do.”

She cast again, raising a huge mass of water, her tiny face hard with determination. “AH!” she yelled as she gestured again, adding another smaller mass to what she was holding, then jumped up and down yelling at the top of her lungs and pounding her fists on her thighs as she added more and more, then growled as she held it for three seconds.

“Almost two hundred and eleven thousand tons! Let it down carefully child!” Mark marveled.

She did let it down carefully, but she was almost out of strength and released it a bit early, which still raised a huge splash. Then she let herself slump to the ground, panting hard.

“That was incredible, Valentia!” Mark congratulated as he scooped her up and hugged her, and Alilia checked her with a spell to see if she had dangerously over-exerted herself, but she hadn’t.

“Hah! I am the champion!” Valentia panted with a grin and two raised fists.

“That’s what it means to be a warlock.” Talia said with pride. “And there are only four of you in the whole world, Mark and you three. If the averages of heredity are followed, you would grow up to have half of Alilia’s wizard’s power, plus half of Mark’s warlock power, and the twins would have half of my power plus half of Mark’s. But you may be able to combine the two in a way that’s greater than the sum of the two parts.”

“It’s all still impossible to say, at this point.” Alilia said. “Mark is a new thing in the world, and you three children are an even newer development. What capabilities you’ll develop will depend on your potential, which is still completely unknown, and it will depend on your development; how hard you work at it, what instruction you get, and so on.”

“And you’re claiming the prize a little early, little sister.” Helemia teased. “Father hasn’t done his lift yet.”

“The way you cast that is amazing.” Mark told his daughter. “Even more basic and intuitive than how Alilia does it. You just do it, the technique seems as easy as waving your hand, and it’s very efficient. Your will just gathers power, shapes it, releases it. It really does remind me a lot of how the dragons would do it, since it’s so similar functionally, but really they have nothing in common. I’ve never seen anyone use magic the way you do.”

“I have!” Talia laughed. “You! You cast a formal spell when you’re not in a hurry, but when you’re in a battle situation and the excitement and stress is intense, you cast a lot like she does.”