Ethereal

Chapter 7

It turned out that the harvest fête was in just a few short weeks. The palace bustled with activity as invitations arrived and dresses were commissioned. Monsieur Baleyard came more frequently as I needed to learn more dances. Madame Seaglass kept me occupied, as well. One twilight morning, she had me working on growing plants from the stone floor.

I sighed in exasperation. "I can't get it to work!" I glared at the single sprout I had willed out of the ground. And this one had already existed. I had yet to create life.

Madame Seaglass clicked her tongue. "Maybe we should take a different approach." She circled around me, surveying my progress. "Reach out for the life again."

I huffed, closing my eyes and searching with my mind for the life of the grass sprouts trapped under the stone.

"Now spread your search into the spaces in between the life. Find the gaps and fill them."

My mind melted over the warmth of life in the ground, spreading across the surface of the life source. It slid over the smooth plane of life like honey.

Just as I was about to give up, I felt a small gap. It was so small that I nearly lost it. I then sucked in a breath and guided the pyli into the hole.

I nodded when I had it done.

"All right. Now, it's just like growing from a preexisting bud of life, but this time, you must force the gap to be mended together. Stitch it back together to be one seamless blanket of life."

My pyli pulled on the sides of the gap, and I grunted with the effort. I pulled even harder until the gap suddenly closed. I shrieked in surprise as my power shot up from the newly closed gap. My eyes flew open. A vine spiraled out of the ground, moving like a snake as it fought through the stone.

The vine was English ivy, a plant not native to Ethereal. This hadn't already existed here. I had made it. I had created its life.

And I could end it.

I lost all of my concentration and stared at the impossible vine. It was so simple a creation, and yet, I had given it life. That should've been impossible.

And yet, everything else in Ethereal should've been too.

Madame Seaglass applauded, surging forward to examine my work. She inspected the vine.

"What plant is this?" she asked, picking up one of its tendrils.

"English ivy," I replied, still taken aback by what I had done.

"A plant native to the human world. You made its life, didn't you? This was not already here."

I nodded, tearing my eyes away from the vine to look at my tutor. Her eyes, however, remained fixated on my creation.

"You did it, Faelin," Madame Seaglass murmured. "You created life."

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My enchantments grew easier every time I used them. After unlocking my ability to grow life from nothing, it became easier to control the plant side of my power. Mending the human body remained my greatest strength, but creating flowering vines and brambles was definitely entertaining. Madame Seaglass even had me incorporate my knife-throwing into my enchantments.

In one exercise, I repeatedly threw a knife towards a target and simultaneously directed a vine to shoot up and carry the knife further. When the weapon was sent back my way by Madame Seaglass, vines shot out of the walls and stretched in front of me to block the attack.