Elemental Heir | ✔️

Chapter 52

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A week had passed since Warrick had been healed. Seven long, torturous days. I was getting impatient. I wanted nothing more than to leave for the Black Forest. I'd wanted to from the moment I'd read the riddle out loud.

But Dristan insisted that we needed Warrick to go with us. And in order for that to happen, Warrick needed to regain his strength. He said that we needed all of the backup we could get. I couldn't say I blamed his caution. He was right to be cautious.

The Kadoma would not be so easy to overcome as the lava and the Sylphs had been. They were lethal. Truly lethal. After a long council meeting, in which the Kadoma were fully explained to me, I wasn't sure how we were going to move forward.

What if we failed, and the gargantuan, animated trees crushed us into a bloody pulp? Even an immortal couldn't come back from something as perilous as that, could they? And even if I... Or someone I loved... was able to survive something like that, I wasn't sure I wanted to know what permanent consequence it would have on the body.

But I could guess.

The first thing that came to mind was permanent paralysis. Then, I thought of the coma I'd been in. It would probably put someone in a vegetative state. Still technically alive... But not truly living. No one would want to exist in such a way.

Warrick's words echoed on repeat in my mind... 'Some things are worse than death...'

Thoughts like those had haunted my mind all week. I couldn't end the worrisome moods, the nightmares, the buzzing anxiety in my stomach.

I didn't feel confident like I had when we'd gone after the last two runes. It wasn't just the fact that we were up against these unimaginable creatures. Though, it did make my nervousness more intense... But it wasn't just that.

Something simply felt... Wrong. I could not shake the feeling, no matter what I did. It was something in my gut, something that screamed at me with silent urgency, something that woke me in the night and sent chills across my flesh. Something dark, a shadow, that crept up on me from behind during the most random moments. Moments when I was alone, moments when my mind would wander... While I showered, or when I tried to read a book, or when I made tea...

It was anxiety. Dread. Paranoia... I couldn't write it off as anything else. All I knew was that it felt like something terrible was going to happen.

Training helped. It was almost all I'd done this week. Ten hours per day.

We all trained. Dristan and I agreed that it was necessary. Especially for Warrick. If he was going to regain his strength, he needed to practice. And so, we did. It was all we could do, for now...

Mostly, I worked on my magic. The more I practiced, the longer I could sustain it. Each day, I could hold it a bit longer. I could fly almost effortlessly, now. I'd leaned how to use the air around me, using it to move me through the sky, without even having to concentrate at all. I was getting very good at it.