"Bartolo." Ella glowered. "Shut up."
Paying no attention, Shani went on. "The cuffs, when activated, can be made to draw moisture or heat from your surroundings. How depleted the cuffs then become, and how successful you are, depends on three things. First, there's obviously the scale of the magic you're trying to perform. A wall of fire requires more energy and more control than a tiny flame. Then there is the amount of control the elementalist has. A small spot of heat is more easily controlled than a wave of water, and more control not only requires more physical strength, but also more judgement and activation sequences to shape the outcome."
Ella listened to Shani intently, digesting the information and storing it alongside what she had learned about enchantment, animation, and illusion.
"Finally, one of the biggest factors is how much heat is in the air, or how much moisture is nearby. Sometimes an elementalist builds a fire or goes near water to make the magic more effective."
"Is that why we're doing this here?" Ella gestured.
The place where they worked was close to the river, located in a path of direct sunshine, near a bower of weeping trees. Shani didn't know it, but she had chosen the place where Ella's friend Amber had married Igor Samson, one of the Academy masters, with Ella standing at her side.
Thinking about Amber always made Ella feel sad, and then she thought about her brother. Miro had loved Ella's friend, and tried to convince himself she was dead, and there was nothing he could do; but Ella sometimes saw him staring into the east, his fists clenched at his sides, and she knew he was thinking about Amber.
"That's right." Shani removed the cuffs from Ella's wrists and confidently attached them to her own, "we've chosen this place because it's warm, and because there's water nearby. It's cold at the moment, and there's still ice melting in the Sarsen, but…"
The elementalist spoke some words, and a tight ball of flame appeared between her wrists. Where Ella's flame had been wild and unruly, the fire Shani had called forth was tight and almost perfectly spherical.
"Try to hit this with your sword, bladesinger," Shani said.
A lone hawk wheeled in the distance, scanning the earth for prey. With a flick of her wrists and a pushing motion from her body, Shani released the fireball towards the bird. Like a small, fiery sun it flew through the air, searing it with a sound like paper being torn, before colliding with the hawk in a burst of sparks and cloud of ash.
Little flickers of residue fell slowly through the sky, and Ella looked for the remains of the bird to plummet to the ground, but there was nothing left of it.
"Shani, that was cruel," Ella said.
Shani shrugged. "You should see what they use in Petrya for target practice."
"Birds don't fight back," Bartolo said, "and you overcooked it. You'll never get a man at this rate. I think we've found something you really do need to work at."
Shani looked at Bartolo and smiled, giving him her full attention for the first time.
She walked towards him, swaying her hips and dipping her hand in the cool river water. Then Shani suddenly stopped, and Ella heard her chant under her breath, before the elementalist made a sweeping motion with her arms.
A wave of water leapt from the river, higher than Ella's head, before coming down to fall with a mighty splash.
Directly on top of Bartolo.
Immediately the bladesinger was drenched to the bone, and with winter barely over, the water was cold. Freezing.
"You were saying, bladesinger?"
Bartolo was up like lightning, and his armoursilk suddenly blazed. The water fell away from him and he placed a hand on the hilt of his zenblade.
"Bah," Bartolo said.
His expression black, the bladesinger stormed away.
Ella watched his departing back, while Shani chuckled and shook her head. Ella thought she saw something in Shani's eyes while she looked at Bartolo, but it was swiftly gone, with Ella wondering if she'd imagined it.
Not for the first time, Ella looked at the runes on the red cuffs Shani wore on her wrists. Ella felt that with time she could decipher them, and truly understand how Raj Petrya's lore functioned.
Ella's quest for knowledge had a purpose. The war had changed everything; they were now saying that the Tingaran Empire was no more, but Ella knew that what came next would be up to people like Miro, and Rorelan, and Shani. What came next could be centuries of chaos, or some good could come of it all, and the system of the world could be replaced with something new, something that allowed the houses to preserve their culture, but inside a greater framework of trade, peace, and unity. It wouldn't be easy, but Ella wanted to try.