“What incantations do you use?” Garringsford asked.
Asterin chewed her lip, wondering if she could get away with lying. She went with a half-truth. “A few here and there. My tutors forced me to use them as a child, but I’ve found that I prefer not to confine my magic to the boundaries of a spell.”
Garringsford’s brow raised. “That’s practically unheard of.”
Asterin opened her mouth to retort, but then her mother’s hand fluttered onto her shoulder and squeezed.
“Perhaps you could give General Garringsford an example,” the queen said.
How could she not oblige? “Fine.” Asterin grimaced slightly, her tone far sharper than she had intended. Her mother’s hand tightened on her shoulder, and Asterin couldn’t help the small part of her that wished the queen would tell the general off for once. “I suppose you could use a simple summoning spell.”
Garringsford’s steel eyes glinted—a challenge. “Would Your Highness be kind enough to demonstrate?”
Asterin resisted the urge to grind her teeth and took a deep breath. When her mind cleared, she lifted the waterstone. “Avslorah aveau,” she recited, the language of the Immortals heavy on her tongue.
A serpentine stream of water flooded into the air at her command, twisting and swirling around her fingers. She controlled it with ease, dividing it again and again until only individual droplets remained. Her palm rotated, and the drops surged upward, an army waiting for the charge order. At the snap of her fingers, they fell as one. Quick as lightning she grabbed the icestone from the chest, freezing the droplets into hail just before they shattered across the floor. Each fragment spread, silver frost racing up the bedposts and the walls—as well as Garringsford’s boots, but the general failed to take notice.
Her mother’s expression of absolute astonishment urged Asterin to the windstone. The temperature plummeted as she conjured thousands of snowflakes. She churned her fist, the snowflakes swirling faster and faster until snow became storm, howling through the room, tearing at the curtains and whipping General Garringsford’s bun into a disheveled frenzy.
Asterin splayed her hand, and her storm echoed her movements, dispersing. Dropping the three stones she currently held back into place in the chest, she swiped up the earthstone and went to the windows. Pressing her face to the panes and squinting into the gardens below, she twisted her wrist upward. The wisteria trees shot up, their sinewy branches twining toward the sun with greedy fingers. As one, their buds erupted into full bloom, light purple blossoms cascading forth like dozens of waterfalls, hanging low. Asterin could almost smell their spring sweetness perfuming the air.
She was just about to reach for the lightstone when Garringsford’s voice, edged with annoyance, stopped her. “Enough of your fancy party tricks, Princess. This isn’t what I came here to see. How do you practice unlocking other affinities?”
Asterin’s fist clenched around the earthstone, the wisteria blossoms outside withering along with her mood, but she forced herself to walk back to the chest, recalling the wonder in her mother’s eyes. Swallowing hard, she took the firestone gently from its place. “Avslorah fiere.”
Nothing happened—not that she had been expecting otherwise.
Inhaling through her nose, Asterin let her eyes slip shut, focusing on the weight of the stone. I was born with the power of the Immortals, she thought to herself. I was born with—
“What are you doing?” Garringsford cut in.
She cracked one eye open. “Concentrating.”
Not even a minute had gone by before the general interrupted again, her words dripping with scorn. “Well, we aren’t here to watch you stand still, Your Highness. If you could actually do something, it would be most appreciated.”
Deep breaths, Asterin told herself.
Another two minutes passed, and then a scoff from Garringsford. “Pray tell, what purpose is there in teaching soldiers to close their eyes?”
Queen Priscilla sighed and asked Asterin with a touch of derision, “Is there any way you can speed things up a little?”
Asterin’s face heated, but she tried to ignore the sting of her mother’s disdain. “I’m doing my best.”
Garringsford shook her head and clucked. “I came hoping to learn from you, Princess Asterin, but as entertaining as your stunts are, I do have other matters to attend to.”
The lingering patience Asterin had been desperately clinging onto evaporated. Her eyes snapped open. “Then you are more than welcome to leave.”
“Perhaps I shall, since it appears that your ‘practicing’ is nothing more than a sham of sleeping,” Garringsford said, and Asterin could have sworn she saw the woman smirk.
“I have stood like this for hours at a time, trying to unlock the third fundamental,” she said, barely noticing as the firestone grew hot against her palm. “This is nothing.”
“Hours wasted, then. You would be much better off practicing things you are actually capable of—”
“Shut up,” Asterin snapped. A low rumbling sounded in her ears, but she paid it no attention.
“Asterin!” her mother exclaimed. “Apologize at once!”
Garringsford was definitely smirking. “It’s fine, Your Majesty. It’s always difficult admitting failure—”
Something in Asterin broke at the word. “I said, shut up!” she snarled, the firestone scorching her skin.
As one, the other eight stones in the chest quivered and rose up into the air.
“Well done.” The general sniffed, utterly unimpressed. “Floating rocks, very masterful. At least you can do something with them.”
An ear-shattering bang tore through the room. The stones exploded in a flash of blinding light, dozens of white-hot shards shooting straight for Garringsford like a mouthful of jagged teeth. Blood misted into the air as cloth shredded.
“Asterin!” her mother shouted over Garringsford’s shrill curses and the sizzling of flesh. “Stop this at once!”
“I don’t know how!” she exclaimed, horrified.
“Drop the stone!”
She did so with a gasp, heart thundering in her chest. Immediately, as if she had severed her connection with her magic, the shards froze and rained upon the floor like an ominous chorus of bells.
Garringsford had gone terrifyingly silent. The color had drained from her face and the smirk was nowhere to be seen. Slowly, she reached across her own body and attempted to dig a particularly large shard out of her forearm.
Asterin stared at the firestone, lying innocently on the floor.
“Asterin, are you harmed?” Asterin had only begun to shake her head when Queen Priscilla thrust a finger toward the door, already turning her attention back to the general. “Fetch a healer immediately.”