Emily sat cross-legged on her blanket, waiting for Tao to return. She was still digesting the information he had given her just twenty minutes prior.

Leaving aside the trial's difficulty, she had grilled Tao for details before letting him leave to grab food. Apparently, she would have to step into a storm—a naturally occurring phenomenon in the region. Kael had called it a glassfire storm, but from Tao's description, it sounded more like a cataclysm.

These storms didn't form just anywhere. They were born in specific, volatile regions known as storm cradles, where the land itself seemed to breathe destruction. Once unleashed, they could roam for hundreds of kilometers, carving blackened scars into the terrain.

At their peak, the heat was so intense that sand melted mid-air, coalescing into molten streaks that rained down like rivers of fire. When the storm passed, these streaks cooled into jagged formations of black glass. But the real danger wasn't just the searing heat or the razor-sharp glass left behind. It was the metals buried within the storm cradles. Charged with volatile source, these metals fed the storms, strengthening them, and making them more violent.

The trial's purpose was simple: retrieve the metals and seal them away, weakening future storms. The task itself, however, was near-impossible. The energy within these regions was so overwhelming that only the most powerful Shamans could endure it. For everyone else, even standing in the storm's path meant death.

Tao had said that while they were in the city they were protected by the mother tree, but if they were caught outside only a Shaman might survive.

There was a technique that allowed one to walk through the storm unscathed. But it wasn't Runic sorcery like what Emily had been learning. This was something more primal, a raw exchange of power. Tao was going to teach it to her.

Unfortunately, there was a reason no one questioned the Hearthspeaker's verdict. The technique was said to be easy to learn but impossible to master. Most trained for a decade before attempting the trial. Emily had three days.

As far as everyone else was concerned, this wasn't a trial. It was an execution.

Now that Emily knew the terms of the challenge she was pissed. Why had that old man set her up just to fail? He said he'd help her but this didn't feel like anything of the sort.

With her Bloodfire inheritance, Emily could handle heat better than the average human –other races notwithstanding– but even she would die a painful death to heat that could melt sand.

Spell-wise, she didn't have anything that could keep her safe for extended periods, save for that fire ward Alex had shown her, but that was wholly inadequate if she was dealing with heat that intense.

Right now, Emily was running through the spells she knew, realizing she didn't have anything that could help her for long periods, because if what Tao said was true then she had to be able to last at least half a days journey in there, longer if she could not find this damned metal.

Emily's first idea was to dig underground to avoid the heat, but that wasn't viable either because the heat down there was apparently even stronger.

Tao was coming back to teach her the basics of their technique, but there had to be other ways she could get around this.

If she could just speak to Ashe or Alex they might have something that could help her.

During her musing, the curtain rustled and Tao poked his head through the gap.

"Miss are you ready?" he asked.

Now that she had time to adjust, she took a closer look at the young Shaman. He still had a touch of baby fat on his cheeks, his short mop of brown hair slightly disheveled. It had been hard to tell beneath all the layers he wore, but now, having shed a few for comfort, the bands of tattoo ink wrapped around his arms were visible. She'd seen signs of tattoos on others but most were hidden

Emily ushered him in with a finger but remained seated where she was.

Tao brought in a tray of sorts with a strange-looking pot on top, along with a bowl of food.

The fair was a simple porridge with a distinct scent of cinnamon and cummin.

As Tao set the tray on the bed he smiled and extended the bowl to her.

Emily took the ceramic vessel and breathed in the rich flavor, using the spoon she took a small mouthful and was immediately rewarded with a full-bodied flavor. After all the meat she'd been eating in the last few days Emily relished a change, though she definitely missed Fox's cooking.

Tao waited patiently and Emily used her open hand to extend an invite to the bed. Seeing this he happily accepted and sat down.

Swallowing her mouthful her eyes fell on the young man.

"Before we get started, I just want to ask if I can see my people. There are a few questions I have to ask them," she asked.

Tao grimaced.

"I can ask, but I can't imagine they will allow you to leave without a heavy guard. Perhaps they would allow a visitor, but you would have to pick one."

Stolen story; please report.

The spoon paused halfway to her mouth.

"Am I a prisoner here?"

Tao shook his head.

"Please don't think of it like that. The Hearthspeaker believes in you I'm sure, otherwise, he wouldn't have given you time to adjust and just sent you straight into the storm," he said.

Emily wanted to snort at the naivety of his statement.

The old man was sly enough to put her up to this, he probably wanted to see her limits, but if she died out there he wouldn't be too distraught.

Tao's bright eyes and innocent gaze made it impossible for Emily to say that though, so she coughed into the back of her hand.

"..Right, well are you going to teach me this amazing spell?"

Tao smiled and nodded.

"First off, it is not a spell or ritual. What I'm going to teach you is the basis of shamanism. It was discovered after years of Shamans working together. Normally, we would never teach outsiders this skill, but seeing as Kaelen has vouched for you, the Hearthspeaker saw fit you bless you."

Emily nodded as Tao spoke with reverence.

"To begin, I have heard that outsiders call this part of the body the bridge," Tao said, tapping the back of his neck. "Here, we call it an eye. The more you have, the more of the world you can see. This is the term I will use in my explanations."

Emily nodded without hesitation.

For most, such a change would be difficult. Renaming something so familiar was like being told that one plus one no longer equaled two. But for Emily, there was no conflict. She had only just learned of bridges, and so shifting her understanding came easily.

Seeing this Tao continued.

"Source is all around us right now and you're eye can feel this. It naturally wants to pull in this energy, and if one has a red or green bridge they would have an even harder time in the desert."

Emily nodded remembering how Alex had been suffering, though it was strange, as far as she had seen Ashe did not seem to have the same problem.

"Our people suffered until the Shamans discovered a way to offset this imbalance. They draw in their color source and use it to form a shield against the outside energy to prevent it from entering. Now everyone in the tribe learns this skill, but it is the Shamans who take it a step further." he said.

Emily was fascinated by the explanation. If that was the case Alex could learn this technique to protect himself from the desert heat.

"We learned we could block more than just our own energy out. If one is skilled enough they can repel the other colors. The thing is, one needs to be practiced to survive the storm, so we'll start immediately."

Tao moved the tray with the iron pot onto the bed. It had three small legs to stabilize it and was radiating a lot of heat.

Excited, Emily turned to face Tao.

"The storm is made up of three sources, red, green, and yellow. We will learn to block red out first, as that is the most dangerous, but before that, you need to learn to sense it."

Emily already had an idea of how to sense her own energy, but she had always thought one could only detect their own type–unless one was using a rune. She asked as much and Tao nodded.

"You're right, but what we do is not sense all types of energy, instead we use our energy to feel the others. Yellow is the best at this, but red works just as well."

Emily hummed at the explanation. It was a strange way to approach the problem but interesting. They were sensing their own energy and then feeling for the blank spaces in between so they could guess where the other was.

"Okay, so I just need to feel the energy coming off this right?" Emily asked.

Tao smiled contently and nodded.

Emily decided to go with what she'd learned in the last few weeks and extended her hand out to hover just centimeters from the searing pot.

If she used a rune it would be easy, but it felt like a crutch, at this point she needed to learn to sense the energy if she was going to take the next step.

Moving grey source from her bones and out into the world had become easier as she'd gotten practice, but there was a problem.

If she was powering a ward or item she could tell where the energy was going, but if she just expelled the energy out into the air it became difficult to track as it spread out.

It was similar to a fine spray. The source would start out concentrated but as it dispersed into the room it got harder and harder to feel it until it dissipated completely.

Control over her source was still far below what Emily would like but she couldn't deny she was growing.

She couldn't even make it move when she had first figured out her source, so much so she'd thought that it just reacted, but now she knew differently. She still couldn't get it to move any other way than in or out, but at least she could sense it now.

With that in mind, the next part was easy. Grey source was fundamentally suited to the task of detecting other sources. Because of this, she could feel the red source coming off the pot. It moved in the opposite direction to her own source and arrived as waves. Prickling her skin as it brushed past the flow of source. It moved in straightforward paths, traveling directly to her open palm.

Opening her eyes she looked up at Tao.

"Okay, what now?"

Tao's brow raised and he cocked his head.

"How do they move?" he asked.

"In straight lines as far as I can tell."

Tao finally nodded and then placed his hand on the pot. Emily's brown rose as she was almost certain there was enough heat radiation from this thing to cook flesh, but Tao didn't even flinch.

"The next step is to use your energy to stop the power from advancing to your skin. Built up a wall of power with your source. Make sure it mimics the red source."

Emily frowned at the instruction but still tried.

She couldn't direct her energy but she could release it in a certain pattern, that made it easier to shape it.

Source poured from her bones at a constant rate and out through her palm. It brushed past the red source but didn't seem to have any effect until she started to alternate the rate of flow. This turned the flat wave of power coming from her into a peak, and as she got more used to it she sharpened the flow.

If one could see Emily's source right now, they would liken her palm to the hide of a porcupine.

The red source had slowed to stop just before her hand, but about twenty percent of it was still getting through her wall.

She tried to sharpen the points further, but her control wavered, so she pressed her hand against the metal.

Where she expected the sizzle of flesh, all she got was a distinct warm sensation. It had worked, she had done it!

Opening her eyes, she looked at a flabbergasted Tao.

His eyes were focused on her point of contact, and slowly, a grin came over his.

"This might work. Hang on a second," he said and grabbed the small lid off the pot filled to the brim with hot coals. Reaching inside he plucked one out and held it out to her.

Emily got his meaning, opened her energy-coated hand, and held it out for him. He dropped it into her waiting palm and as the red source came into contact with her wall she noticed something.

It was not alone. Green source was intertwined with the red, and as it came into contact with her hand, it snuck straight through her guard, which was focused on the red source. The smell of charred flesh filled the room as Emily had to let go of the coal with a hiss.

Blood points: 623

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