The Sphere (The Magi Series #2) (20 page)

“Example?”

Elijah huffed.  Then quickly reformed.  “Fire is angry. 
Water is calm.  Earth is nurturing.  Wind is wild and unpredictable.”

“Once you do that?”

“Once I access the Soul of an element?”

“Yes.”

“Then I control it.”

Olivia shook her head.  “You’re skipping steps and becoming
stagnant.  Any Magi can access the Soul once they’ve learned how and practiced
it enough.  It’s the next part that’s the most important.”

“Knowledge,” said Elijah.

“Exactly.”

“I need to know what each element wants to do and get it to
do what
I
want it to do.”

“Yes,” Olivia said.  “I know you’ve been spending a lot of
time working on accessing the elements, but now it’s time to work on your
knowledge of the elements.  You’ve done some things subconsciously, especially
elements that are more natural to your personality.  But in order to really
master an element you will need to get to know it on a deeper level.  The more
you know, the easier you can control elements and the more you can do with
them.  So don’t neglect your studies.  Don’t neglect knowledge.”

Elijah couldn’t help feeling like he had just gotten into
trouble.  Even though Olivia spoke in a calm voice, her words felt like a
lecture, which he probably deserved.  It was true.  Elijah took for granted
that he could manipulate the elements on command, but he wasn’t adept at really
controlling them the way he wanted, water being the one exception.

Olivia then said, “I’m sure Mr. Button has explained to you
what we will be focusing on this year, has he not?”

“I think he said something about defense training,” Elijah
answered.

“Correct,” Olivia said.  “I will focus this year on teaching
you defensive strategies.  Defense can be tricky, especially when you don’t
know how to use all the elements on command.  Suffice to say, if you were
defending yourself now against a skilled Magi, you wouldn’t last long.”  She
smiled, but it did not comfort Elijah.  In fact he felt quite rebellious at her
remark.

“You don’t think I could defend myself now?”

In the blink of an eye, Olivia shot her hands forward and a
small clump of dirt hurled toward his face at an incredible speed.  Elijah’s
only defense was to shield his face with his hands as the mud harmlessly
splattered all over him.

“You were saying,” Olivia smirked.

Elijah wiped himself off, his pride stinging smartly.

“You reacted quick enough to block your face,” Olivia said. 
“That’s a start.  At least your reflexes are worth something, but I think I
made my point.”  She took a step toward him and talked very seriously.  “Never,
under any circumstances, underestimate your opponent or overestimate yourself. 
You are never as good as you think you are.  Ever.  There will always be
someone better, and many times, they will be the ones facing you.  But that’s
one way to gain an advantage as well.  Humility can work both ways.  It’s
natural for us to believe we’re better than we are, so if you can keep a level
head, most likely, your opponent will be underestimating
you
.  It’s how
the little guy wins, Elijah.  Pride never gave anyone an advantage.  And I’m
not just talking about using elements in battle.”

“Do you think the Maliphists overestimate themselves?”
Elijah asked.

“Most definitely,” Olivia answered.  “But that doesn’t mean
they aren’t good.  That doesn’t mean they aren’t
better
.  But their arrogance
can be our advantage, provided we don’t make the same mistakes.  So…are you
ready to begin?”

“Yes.”

“First, let’s see how far you’ve come.  Show me what you can
do with the four elements, one at a time.”

Elijah steadied himself and prepared his mind to access
emotions.  He wanted to gain some confidence before accessing other elements,
so he decided to start with water.  He harnessed his most calm feelings and
memories to access the Soul of water.  The more he had trained and practiced
accessing the elements, he began to know the point at which he had successfully
dialed in to the Soul.  It felt like a wave suddenly rushed toward him and
filled him up with the strong emotion of the particular element.  He felt
consumed and covered by it as if he was emitting a force from his body.

Once he gained access to water’s Soul, Elijah thought about
what water wanted to do.  Water was a unifying element.  It wanted to collect
and become bigger.  Elijah concentrated hard on moving the water.  He held out
his hands and summoned as much water as he could from the moisture in the air
and the river nearby.  He collected it in a large mass between him and Olivia
until it was physically too big for him to focus to keep it there while at the
same time collecting more.  Next, he whipped his hands around, and the water
followed his motions around his body in a circle.  Around and around he waved
his right arm until the water spun around him in one continuous circle.  Then,
out of the circle, he thrust out his left hand sporadically, sending out
baseball-sized shots of water in all directions until there was no water left. 
Elijah breathed heavily from the physical exertion, but he felt at peace.  He
always enjoyed controlling water because of the feelings he was left with.

Olivia may have been impressed, but she said nothing when
Elijah finished.  She only sat on a nearby rock and waited patiently for him to
continue his presentation.

Elijah next manipulated fire.  He harnessed an angry emotion
and then thought about what fire wanted to do, which was spread out and destroy. 
While he wasn’t as good with it as he was with water, he was still able to
manage enough energy to create a large ball of fire.  He attempted to use the ball
he had created to make it rain drops of fire, but he only succeeded in shooting
himself in the foot with the fire, which he had to put out using water,
virtually ending his demonstration.

Earth was trickier, and his mediocrity was quite obvious. 
He attempted twice to move a nearby tree, but nothing happened.  He changed his
focus to the dirt and made chunks of dirt rise out of the ground, but he could
hardly do anything with it.

Finally, as he expected, he was only able to make the wind
blow gently by.  He successfully changed its direction a few times, which made
him happy enough, so he stopped trying quickly thereafter.

Olivia nodded when he finished.  “Well done,” she said. 
“You’re really coming along nicely.  May I suggest that for our first defense
training that you use water.  I think we both know that’s your strongest
element.”

Elijah nodded, still breathing heavily.

“Alrighty.  First, let’s start with theory.  With defense,
at least for now, your only goal is to stop an oncoming threat.  So, let’s say
a piece of jagged wood from a nearby tree is hurtling toward you at an alarming
speed.  Your only thought is to keep it from hitting you, not trying to use it
to attack back.”

“Okay,” Elijah responded.

“Needless to say, most of the time, you will not need to be
too fancy to stop a threat.  Usually, the simplest diversion is the best defense. 
For example, if I were to send a flame toward you right now, what would be your
action?”

“To put it out?” Elijah asked.

“Correct.  How would you do that?”

“I would use water.”

“Okay,” Olivia said.  “Let’s practice.”  She walked back
about fifty feet and faced Elijah.   Elijah prepared himself for an attack he
knew was coming.  His arrogance from earlier was completely gone now as he
readied his defensive strategy.

Olivia didn’t ask if he was ready.  She shot her hands out
and the longest, most fluid flame Elijah had ever seen emerged from her palms
and shot toward Elijah.  It looked almost like liquid as it moved.  Elijah
couldn’t react fast enough.  By the time he harnessed his emotion and felt
himself connect with the Soul of water, Olivia’s flame stopped inches from his
face, singing his eyebrows.  She then released the flame and let it die out.

Elijah had failed.  Miserably.  How could he have thought he
was even close to being ready to defend himself?  Had she wanted to, Olivia
could have killed him right then and there.  He shook off his embarrassment. 
He readied himself again.

Olivia shot again at Elijah, and this time he reacted
quicker.  He still couldn’t do anything until the flame was already at his
face, but he was able to douse it a second later.  Over and over, Olivia threw
flames at Elijah, and each time, it reached him before he could put it out.

Soon, Elijah sat down on the grass, exhausted.  This was
much more difficult that he imagined.  He couldn’t understand how anyone could
defend themselves against the speed of an element.  It took too long to access
the Soul.  How could anyone experience an emotion on command in a fraction of a
second?

Olivia walked over to Elijah.

“You look dejected.”

“I am.  I can’t do this.”

“Oh hogwash!  You’re ready to call yourself a failure after
thirty minutes?”

“You’re too fast.  That or I’m too slow.”

“Both,” Olivia said.  “Attacking is much easier than
defending.  You have one thing to think about when you attack.  When you
defend, it requires two thoughts, not to mention the execution.  You must think
about the element attacking you
and
the element with which you choose to
defend.”

“But I knew both before you did anything, and I still
couldn’t stop it!” Elijah argued.

“So how
can
you stop it?”

“I told you.  I can’t.”  Olivia glared at him.  “Okay, I
guess I have to become quicker.”

“And how will you do that?”

“I have no idea.  It takes too long for me to access the
Soul.”

Olivia said nothing.  She turned and walked toward the bank
of the river.  Elijah watched her curiously as she returned holding two long
sticks.  She handed one to Elijah.  Just then, without warning, Olivia swung
her stick toward Elijah.  Elijah blocked her attack with his stick out of sheer
instinct.

Olivia smiled.  She tossed her stick behind her.

“Do you feel better?” she asked.

“That I can block you with a stick?”

“Yes,” Olivia answered.  “Did it take you long to react to
my swing?”

“No, but…”

“You see?  You’ve developed those instincts already.  You’ve
practiced moving your hands and arms.  You know how to shield yourself from an
attack.”

“But how is that the same as defending against elements?”
Elijah asked.

“In time, you will be able to access the Soul of each
element without thinking about it.  Do you have to think about how to walk each
time you stand up?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ve learned how to do it.”

“Exactly.  Do you think a toddler has to think about how to
walk the first time he learns how to do it?”

“I suppose so.”

“It takes time and practice, Elijah.  Soon, you’ll learn how
to keep your emotions at the surface in case you need to use them.  You’ll
learn how to anticipate an attack.  You won’t need to think about doing it. 
You’ll just do it.  Come now.  Let’s try again.  This time, you know what’s
coming.  I will shoot a flame toward you.  You know what you need to do. 
Connect before I even shoot.  Use your knowledge to your advantage.”

Olivia walked back to her original position and readied
herself.  Elijah dug in and prepared again for an attack.  This time he
accessed the Soul.  He felt the radiating wave of the connection before Olivia
attacked.

As if she knew the moment he made the connection, Olivia
shot the flame toward Elijah.  This time, Elijah headed it off with a stream of
water of his own.  The two elements met right in front of Elijah’s face,
creating a billowing plume of smoke that rose out of the clash.  As Elijah held
his position and focused on collecting water to fuel his defense against fire,
he felt a surge of energy from Olivia’s flame as if it was growing in strength.

Indeed it was.

The flame inched its way closer to Elijah, enough so that he
eventually had to duck and let it fly by his left cheek.  Then, he sent a
stream of water right into the middle of her flame, twenty feet away, cutting it
in half.

Now, the virtual battle was even.  Elijah’s water met
Olivia’s fire directly between the two of them.  He had pushed his defense
toward her and was actually forming an offensive.  She did not back down.  Elijah
felt the strength of her fire increasing as it crept toward him once more.

Again he sidestepped and cut into the flames.  He would
never be able to match her strength because he could not collect enough water
at a time, but he could continue this strategy of moving and then firing back
at least enough to make her change her own strategy, which she quickly did.

After continuing to battle Olivia’s flame by moving his
physical position, Olivia countered by creating two walls of fire on both sides
of him, making it impossible to sidestep anymore.  He would now be forced to
deal directly with the fire.

Elijah was sure the river was now completely dry with his
continual summoning.  He felt like he was not only collecting water but pushing
a train from behind.  Soon, the flames around him became so intense that he was
going to either win or burn.

Olivia’s flame advanced closer and closer and closer until
finally, he broke his focus and fell backward.  As soon as he did, Olivia
ceased her attack and put out the walls of flame on both sides of him.

Elijah gasped for air.  He was drained.  Exhausted.  His
body ached from the strain of his defense.  His mind felt weak, like it had
emptied itself of all thoughts.

“That was impressive,” Olivia stated as she approached Elijah. 
“See?  That wasn’t as hard as you thought.”

“But I knew what you were going to do and I had my strategy
planned out before you attacked,” Elijah panted.