A lump sat in my stomach as we made our way north of the village. The old man was eagerly waiting for us to lead us to the Falor Ghula, but we paid him no mind. We could find our way there ourselves. We wanted silence, not his passive-aggressive yapping.

  It felt like what we were doing was wrong. But like Maverick said, we didn’t have much of a choice. Or did we? Could we defeat Avaline first and the Falor Ghula later? But we didn’t even know if we could defeat her… We needed to make sure the people in this village were safe in case we… god forbid died. “Don’t think like that.”

  The ether grew thicker, indicating we were almost there. The ether in the village was already pretty thick, so I wasn’t surprised the Falor Ghula was so close.

  “The element is wind,” Maverick said in a tone I couldn’t decipher—almost as if he had already mentally given up. “Let’s make this quick.”

  We climbed the cloud ramp onto yet another cloud. We could see a giant bird flying around, covered in dark purple mist. It was the Falor Ghula, all right.

  “Are you sure that it’s— Eh…” Marge gave up asking her question. All of us were too bothered and unsettled to really make conversation.

  The bird caught sight of us and landed on the same platform as us and screeched. None of us flinched, more bothered by our thoughts than the noise. The bird cocked its head to the side as if confused by our lack of response.

  Maverick sent a giant gust of wind and the bird, and…

  Nothing. It didn’t even flinch.

  For once, Maverick’s eyes widened, if only a little.

  “I thought you said it was wind?” Marge asked.

  “It should be. We already tried the other three elements,” Maverick answered.

  The bird screeched again, annoyed by our squabbling, and flew back, away from the platform.

  “Be on your guard!” Zephyr called out.

  I stood in place, my heart pounding in my chest, as I didn’t know what to expect. A million thoughts were racing through my head at once. How were we going to kill it if wind didn’t work? How was it going to attack us? What if the cloud beneath our feet disappeared?

  Two cyclones appeared at the edge of the cloud and spun towards us at a rapid speed.

  “Ella!” Finn called out to me as he grabbed my wrist and pulled me away just before the cyclone could hit me. My head was pressed against his chest, and I could hear his heart racing. He was also very warm—the exact opposite of those cyclones.

  “You two can kiss later!” Marge shouted at us, which drew our attention back to the bird. It was directly above us and preparing to nosedive. As soon as it did, Maverick sent a pillar of rock straight at its beak. It stopped the attack from hitting us, but didn’t do much other than annoy the creature.

  “Should we try the other two elements?” Aidan suggested.

  “It doesn’t hurt,” Maverick said, motioning with his hand for the rock to disappear.

  Aidan sent a ball of fire hurling at the bird that was still suspended in the air. Nothing. Didn’t even faze it. Marge summoned water above it, and it cascaded down the bird’s back and wings. Still nothing.

  “The bird’s natural element is wind, no?” Zephyr called out. “Perhaps it has a certain resistance to wind while also being weak to it.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense!” Marge called out.

  “Wouldn’t the frog we fought also have a natural water affinity?” Aidan theorized. “Yet the water seemed to work just fine…”

  “It was also a weaker beast than the one we’re currently fighting,” Zephyr added. “Not to mention it didn’t have water readily available, weakening its affinity.”

  “So, what do we do?” Maverick asked. “Just hit it with wind over and over?”

  “Err, I suppose so?” That didn’t sound reassuring.

  Maverick rolled his eyes and sent out another blast of wind. Again, the bird was unfazed. Aidan and Zephyr added their wind, and still nothing.

  “This isn’t getting us anywhere,” Maverick said.

  “We should try the other elements again,” Marge suggested before hitting it with a ball of fire. Still nothing.

  “We can’t just randomly attack—we’ll wear ourselves out.”

  The bird flew at us with open wings. Was it trying to drive us off the platform?! With how big its wingspan was, I was sure it would.

  “Get ready to jump!” Finn called out. He grabbed one hand in mine, and his other hand in Aidan’s. When the bird approached us, the three of us jumped with incredible height. I think Finn had intended to be the one to lift us with wind magic, but Aidan managed to do so himself.

  And in the air we stayed.

  “You know, we could just hang out up here. See the sights. Get a better angle,” Aidan suggested.

  “Um, no! Get us down from here!” I shouted. We slowly descended back down, but only because the giant bird was rising back up to attack us. Or at least I was sure that was the reason.

  “Don’t spend longer than necessary in the sky.” Maverick scowled at us.

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  “Maybe knocking it out of the air is the idea?” Marge suggested.

  “Great, but how do we do that?”

  “Maybe if we use wind from above it so that it gets knocked below…” Maverick and Aidan were already on it before Marge could finish her sentence. They both focused a blast of wind on each wing, but the bird remained stable in the sky.

  This wasn’t getting us anywhere. I could already see Maverick getting exhausted. We needed to find its weakness, and fast! But how…?

  Right—I could see memories. I raised my hand in the air and concentrated on the bird. Show me your memories!

  Unfortunately, nothing happened. I was too far away. If I wanted to see this thing’s memories, I would have to get up close and personal with it. I’d… have to face my fears.

  “Ella! Don’t!” Finn ran towards me, but it was too late; I had already launched myself into the air using wind.

  “What’s she doing?!” Maverick asked, his gaze following me as I flew through the sky with ease. I was really getting the hang of this magic thing.

  “Something really reckless!” I could hear Finn’s voice right behind me. He had followed me.

  “Let me go!” I demanded, not bothering to turn around. “I’m our only chance at finding out its weakness!”

  “You’ll kill yourself!” His voice was pleading and desperate. I could briefly feel the touch of his skin against my fingers, but he failed to grasp on.

  “I’m not going to get that close,” I assured him.

  “I’m still following you!” Fine. Just don't get in my way.

  The Falor Ghula was scary up close. It must have been at least ten times the size of a bald eagle… It was staring directly at me, shrouded in the same purple mist all Falor Ghulas had.

  “Come and get me,” I said. As if it understood, it did just that. At the last second before it could hit me, I increased my wind magic to launch me out of the way. I had to time my Ether Recollection just right so that it went off before I was launched.

  Unfortunately, I had cut it too close, and my cheek was grazed. The color around me changed, and time stood still, so it wasn’t in vain.

  I was surprised when I saw a vision of a much smaller bird, something similar to a seagull, surrounded by other similar birds. Purple mist seeped from the land and consumed the other birds, but this one remained. It seemed as if it had tried to protect its friends, but failed. When everything had settled, it grew four times its size, but remained much smaller than what we now fought.

  The vision changed to a group of magic users fighting the beast. They used the four elements, with wind being the most effective. To my surprise, one of them cast a light spell, which did absolutely nothing. The four warriors then fled, leaving a wounded Falor Ghula.

  Light magic didn’t work… But why? I needed to think fast—time would resume any moment, and I wasn’t any closer to the answer. It had tried to protect its friend… Would that make its affinity light?

  Then we needed to defeat it with darkness.

  Ow! Time resumed, and the scratch across my face began to burn. I practically hurled myself back down to the cloud platform, whirling by Finn in the process. I landed with a small thud before being hurled up into the sky once again, and then landing. Someone had used wind magic to break my fall.

  “Ella!” Zephyr called out to me. He immediately started healing me. I was thankful when I healed much faster than the first time I was struck by a Falor Ghula.

  “Ella, are you okay?” Maverick gazed deep into my eyes. I could see the worry in his expression.

  I was shaking from both the fear of what I had just done and also being infected by ghula again. Adrenaline was still winning. “We have to use darkness!” I blurted out, ignoring his question.

  “Darkness?” Maverick furrowed his brows.

  “It’s a good suggestion.” Finn had finally landed next to us.

  “Well, that’s an element I’m only too familiar with.” Maverick held his shoulder in place while cranking his arm.

  “Wait!” I said before he could leave. “You’re low on ether. You should take some of mine.”

  “You sure?” His gaze was puzzled, like he wasn’t sure if he should.

  I nodded. “I got plenty of sleep since the last time you borrowed it.”

  He paused, eyeing me up and down. “Since your Talent awakened, you should be able to do it yourself this time.”

  “I— I should?” I blinked. The bird screeched from behind us, reminding me I didn’t have time to think about this. I grabbed his hand in mine. I’d never get over how cold his hands were… I focused on transferring my ether to him, and to my surprise, a faint pink light emitted between our hands.

  “See? You’re doing it,” Maverick said with a proud smirk on his face. I couldn’t help but smile, despite there being an ancient angry bird directly behind us trying to kill us.

  Once I had given him enough ether, me and the others stepped back. Finn had to catch me before I stumbled over, feeling very weak all of a sudden. How much… had I given?

  A dark aura surrounded Maverick, not unlike the Falor Ghula. The sky turned dark, the sun completely vanishing, as if night had fallen upon us. I struggled to see around me, momentarily wondering if maybe we somehow got teleported out. I was reassured by Finn gently gripping my shoulder.

  I wondered what Maverick was doing. I couldn’t hear a weapon, not that his weapon would be useful here. Next thing I knew, I heard the bird screech, and the sun returned. Once my eyes adjusted to the light, I could see the bird in front of us lying down, completely still. The purple mist was gone, but darkness seeped out of its open wound, like some sort of goop. Had he… imploded it?

  “We did it. That… that was the last one.” Maverick’s shoulders slumped as he walked towards us. His words were hoarse, and he sounded out of breath. I wondered how much ether it took to pull that off—wondered what would’ve happened had I not shared my ether with him.

  “Yeah… That was the last Falor Ghula…” Aidan repeated. The truth of the words unsettled me.

  Why did I need to use my Talent on the mural? Why couldn’t I have just continued in ignorance? We could’ve been celebrating now. Well, celebrating until Avaline decided to kill us. Maybe it was a good thing I found this out after all.

  “Um, what do we do now?” Marge asked.

  Maverick opened his mouth to speak, but Zephyr cut him off. “We should first check on the villagers to make sure they’re safe.”

  We decided to do just that. I wondered if we would come across the twin Ethereals I had met before, but they were nowhere to be found. Instead, villager after villager approached us singing our (and Avaline’s) praise. The old man from before promised us a banquet if we were to return to the capital. He had received the news from “Her Imperial Majesty herself!” He had sounded so proud. None of us were eager to accept.

  “It looks like Sorine was right about you being here after all. Might I have a word with you?” A feminine voice called out to us. It was serene and melodic, and there was something almost familiar about it, like I had heard this magical tone before.

  A woman with long, light teal hair and a green gown approached us, and I instantly recognized her as the woman from the vision by the mural.

  “You’re…” I started, but she held a finger up to her lips, silencing me.

  “You there,” she turned to Maverick. “You command space. With the ether no longer disturbed, there is somewhere I’d like you to take us.” She extended her hand to him.

  Maverick was taken aback and narrowed his eyebrows. He obviously didn’t trust her, and I didn’t blame him after the whole Avaline situation.

  “It’s okay,” I said. “We can trust her.”

  “You used your Talent on her?” Maverick asked.

  “In a way, yes.”

  His gaze shifted back and forth between me and her, likely trying to decide if he wanted to trust her. He eventually shrugged and grabbed hold of her hand. Once he did, we teleported to a small cottage in the woods. Judging by the landscape, we seemed to be somewhere east.

  East… That was a long way from where we were!

  “Are you okay?!” I panicked, watching to see if Maverick would collapse at any second.

  “I’m fine…” His tone and expression were both bewildered. He seemed out of it, like he was trying to understand it himself, unable to focus on anything around us.

  “Please, be at ease. I shared my ether with him. Had I my brother’s gift, I would have teleported us myself,” the mysterious lady answered. “Now then—I am Talus, second daughter of Alina.”