Terramancer

Chapter Eight

It had been a week since I had discovered I was a terramancer, and it had not gotten any easier.

Ece had told Imryll, who in turn had told Iza, who had cornered me in the hallway and hissed at me, "You're a terramancer?"

"So I've been told," I had replied numbly.

Iza had frowned and walked away. He had barely spoken to me outside of training since. And even training was awkward. He had seemed to take the rule of non-contact to heart and now yelled instructions at me from across the Training Room. Whenever I slightly messed up, he would yell at me. I had seen him speak to Ece more times in the past week than he spoke to me.

Ece had also gone quiet on me. He was not as cold about it as Iza was but it still made me feel terrible.

Imryll was the only one who was still speaking to me. She was absentminded and had a poor memory for any information that was unrelated to books, but she was easy to talk to, and I found that I enjoyed her company far more than that of Iza and Ece's, for she was uncomplicated and did not stir up any unwanted feelings.

Training was long over and Imryll and I sat in the library together.

"Ece says you don't try," I said.

"Hmm?" Imryll said, not even looking up from the book she was reading.

"Ece says you could be an amazing witch if you tried. Why don't you?" I asked.

This time, Imryll looked up from her book. She regarded me with her strange amber eyes, her expression the same as when she was reading.

"There's no point." She shrugged.

"What?" I could not understand what she meant.

"There is no point in trying. Ece says aeromancers are powerful – and that is true – but it is a traditional way of seeing the world. One I disagree with."

"Traditional?"

"Yes. Most ancient families believe that air is the most powerful element and that fire and water are common and therefore bad." Imryll pushed her glasses up her nose. "I believe the Sythaeryn Family is comprised almost entirely of aeromancers. The fact that Ece is a pyromancer must make his family look impure and dirty."

"How so?"

"Ancient families are all about being pure, and what's more pure than having your family be only the most powerful element – air?"

"How can you be sure that all of your children are one element only?"

"Most ancient families will only marry someone who has the same element as them so when they have children, those children will inherit the ability to manipulate that element. It is very rare a child's elemental powers deviate from those of their parents'."

"So Ece is jealous of you?"

"Not jealous. Angry. He hates seeing me not try, it makes him feel like I am wasting my power. The power he so desperately craves. But what he does not understand is that I am not a powerful witch. I am weak. I simply cannot manipulate air as well as he can manipulate fire, or Iza; water."

"Why not?"

"Because I do not have enough magic in my body to do so." I opened my mouth to reply, but Imryll's eyes were already back on her book. This was not unusual for our conversations. Imryll would often get bored about whatever topic we were talking about, and I would have to change the subject to keep her engaged.

Then, after a moment of silence, I said, "Iza tried to kiss me in the Training Room the other day." Imryll's extraordinary eyes snapped up from her book and trained themselves onto me.