He said it like an admission.
They were silent at that realization. Kerrigan had done something that no one else had ever done before. That Gelryn knew of at least. All because she had been too stubborn to let go? Or was there another reason?
“Why did this happen?”
Truly, Kerrigan of the House of Dragons, I do not know.
She was stunned. “You have never entered the spiritual plane?”
In fact, dragons enter all the time. We are the dominions of the spiritual. The test is to project your essence out onto the spiritual plane so that I might assess your magical prowess.
“And I brought you out with me?”
So it appears.
“Huh. This isn’t part of the test then, is it?”
No. He rumbled in his chest. Fire heating through and then dissipating. You appear to be in control of this plane. You were the one who created it.
“Created it?” Kerrigan asked in confusion.
Whoever summons the spiritual plane commands it. It would take a great magical user to wrench control of someone else’s spiritual work. At present, it seems safer for us both to allow you to control it. This is not how I test my subjects, but it seems prudent to continue—and quickly. The spiritual plane saps your energy. I do not want you to pass out and strand us here.
Kerrigan shivered. “We don’t want that.”
No, we do not. Gelryn stretched to his full ghostlike height. Show me each of the four elements.
“I don’t have anything to show. I mean, I can probably get a flame in here,” she said uneasily.
Magic was a conduit. The elements were its source. It was possible to create something out of nothing, but it was draining. That was why, in fights at the Wastes, all four of the elements were provided for the competitors. A lot of Fae couldn’t even summon them out of nothing. Only the strongest among them.
She supposed this was why there was testing to begin with. To get the strongest among them to compete to be a dragon rider.
A small flame will do.
She sighed and then snapped her fingers. He had already seen her do it, but she would oblige him. Nothing happened. She snapped again. Her eyes grew wide and fingers frantic.
“What is happening?”
Gelryn had his eyes closed. He wasn’t even watching her. He was just swaying slightly, as if to music.
“Gelryn?”
Now, air.
“But nothing happened.”
You do not have control of your magic on the spiritual plane. You only have access to spirit here. It is the energy that moves between us. And when you attempt your magic, you are pulling from the energy to create flame. As you will pull from the energy to create water and air and earth. The energy is still there, being manipulated. I can sense it even if the flame does not actually ignite.
“That is… okay,” she muttered.
She didn’t have words for it. No magic in the spiritual realm. She suddenly felt very exposed. There was energy here that she couldn’t see or feel or use, but it was still there. She didn’t like it.
Air, he repeated.
Fire was her easiest by far. Her chosen element, as they expressed in the House of Dragons. Few had fire as their chosen. But it suited her.
Air, however, was what she chose to fight with in the ring. Fire was too flashy and too destructive. Plus, it would pinpoint her as a target if she had that much affinity for the element.
Kerrigan had watched the air Fae train for years by hiding in an alcove in the mountain. She’d hidden the true might of her powers for so long that she had taken to learning in secret, so no one else could judge her strength.
She brought her hand up like a blade at hip height. She scooped it inward, as if sweeping the air in a current. Then, she pivoted, flipped her palm, and shot her hand at an upward diagonal. Nothing happened. She almost laughed. It was ridiculous. That move would have slashed through a competitor’s skin with ease in the ring. It did nothing here.
Strong in fire and air, Gelryn noted. Earth next.
“Is it normal for me to feel nothing?”
You are not attuned to the spiritual. I would not expect you to be able to feel the energy through the workings. Now, earth.
Kerrigan sighed and then continued. Earth was tricky. She had to be grounded to feel the earth beneath her. And she was currently floating.
Still, it didn’t seem like Gelryn was going to tell her how to get out of here until she finished. So, she widened her stance in the sky. She dropped into a low squat with her hands between her legs. Then, with a strain that she didn’t actually feel but forced into her limbs, she heaved her arms upward, as if she were pulling rock straight out of the ground. Her arms shook with the exertion. Even though she was simply fighting against air. It was bizarre.
Good, Gelryn said after a moment. Now, water.
Kerrigan swallowed and nodded. Water was the opposite of fire. It was smooth and clear and healing. The opposite of who Kerrigan was—erratic, wild, and destructive. It was the element that she always struggled with. Most people had issues with their opposite element. But she had to prove herself here.
Kerrigan reined in her fear. She swiped both of her hands down in a wave stroke. A common move that let a person cup water through their hands and manipulate it like a wave in the ocean. To complete the move, she had to bring the water back up in a figure eight. But her hands were stuck. She buffeted against the energy holding her. She couldn’t draw her hands back. She couldn’t complete the wave. The energy felt as it were drawing taut.
She gasped and released it instantly. Her breathing was labored, and her fingers tingled.
“What was that?” she panted.
That was the energy of the spiritual plane.
Kerrigan shivered. “It was fighting me.”
Teaching you. He tilted his head, assessing her. There is more than meets the eye. Show me your spiritual attunement.
“I don’t even know what that means.”
The spirit will guide you. Reach out with your soul.
Oh, sure. Like that was so easy.
Kerrigan closed her eyes and centered herself, as she had in meditations under the mountain. She didn’t know how to reach for her soul. But she let her mind go blank. Then, she reached out anyway.
And something shifted.
Something… broke.
Suddenly, Kerrigan was tipped upward with her body hovering flat in the air. Something hammered against her skull. A pounding, wrenching darkness.
She screamed. And screamed. And screamed.
She couldn’t stop. The pain was endless.
She was going to die here in the clouds on a spiritual plane. She couldn’t feel or think or do anything. Just lay there, face up, enduring the endless spasms against her mind and body.
Then, it all shifted.
One minute, she was screaming. The next, she was thrust downward through the endless sea, and she crashed back into her body.
She released one more shout of terror, but it came from her own lungs. She crumpled on the floor in the testing room. Gelryn stood mighty and proud before her. And she was a mess. Her body hurt in every place imaginable. Her limbs felt like jelly. Her mind felt as if it had been beaten and returned to her. Sweat coated her body. She couldn’t even speak.
Can you explain what just happened?
She shook her head. Tears welled at the corners of her eyes. She could barely lift her hand to brush them aside.
Nor can I.
There he went, sounding worried again.