This was going to be harder than I thought.

I stood in the midst of my garden the next morning with my arms folded across my chest and my foot tapping the stone garden path. Everything was green and bright and incredibly bland.

“Arian?” I called to the open doorway of my home.

Arian peeked her head out. Her hands were filled with the laundry basket. “Yes?”

I waved my hand about the place. “You’ve seen one of these festivals before. What do people usually decorate their homes with?”

Arian set the basket down and walked over to me. “They often hang paper lanterns and streamers.”

I cupped my chin in one hand and tapped a loose finger against my face. “That sounds really pretty but I want to do something else, or at least something more than that.”

“Perhaps focusing on your magic would help you think of an idea.”

The suggestion came not from my friend but from Prince Yushir. He strolled down the path with that teasing smile on his lips. “Have you been practicing in the afternoons as I instructed you?”

I rubbed my arms and winced. “Yeah, but I don’t really feel anything special happening.”

“Perhaps that is because you have not yet found your element,” he suggested as he reached us and looked me up and down. “Godly children always attain a higher level of magic once they have discovered their element.”

“Element?” I repeated as I looked between the two. “You mentioned that before, didn’t you? Like I would be able to control fire or water?”

“Precisely,” Yushir confirmed as he held up one hand with the palm raised.

A large droplet of water formed out of nowhere and floated above his hand. The teardrop glistened in the bright sun as it slowly spun in a dainty circle like a ballerina. I’d seen him do that trick before but I was still in awe at the majesty of the magic.

Yushir closed his hand and the magic vanished. He tucked both hands behind his back and nodded at me. “Now you try.”

I lifted my hands and stared blankly at the open palms. “Shouldn’t I already know how to use my element? I mean, I can make chocolate.”

The prince’s eyes crinkled at the corners as he leaned toward me to catch my eye. “Do you believe your element is delicious desserts?”

I shrugged. “I can hope.”

“As wonderful as that would be for the realm, I very much doubt you are to be the goddess of sweets.” He swept a hand toward the usual grassy spot where I had meditated countless times before. “Let us see if we cannot find the element that lays hidden inside you.”

My shoulders drooped and dragged my feet over to the spot where I plopped down. Yushir strolled after me and paced the ground in front of where I sat.

He lifted his chin and contemplated the clear sky. “Now let me see. It has been a few years since I taught Prince Kean to harness his element but I am sure I can recall the lesson.”

My face drooped and my voice delved into a flat register. “So I’m being taught what a kid would learn?”

Yushir’s twinkling eyes dropped to me. “In terms of power and experience, you are just above the level of a toddler.”

I slumped in my grassy seat and dropped my hands into my lap. “Thanks. . .”

The prince chuckled as he resumed his back-and-forth pacing. “There is no need to be disappointed. One must start somewhere and you must start by focusing on the air around you.”

I sighed and sat up straight before I closed my eyes. A gentle breeze floated past me, kissing my cheeks as it swept by. The wind tugged at my clothes and ruffled my hair, causing one to tickle my nose.

“Do you feel anything?” Yushir asked me.

I wrinkled my nose. “Yeah. I feel I need to scratch my nose.”

“But do you not feel anything in the air?” he persisted.

I scratched my nose before I shook my head. “Not really.”

“Then open your hand.”

I peeked open one eye and lifted an eyebrow at him. “Why?”

He knelt in front of me. “You will see, now concentrate.”

I pursed my lips but did as he commanded. He took my hand and turned the palm upward. I started back when I felt a wet puddle of water drop into my palm.

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“Do you feel anything in the water?” he asked me.

“You mean besides it being wet?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Arian?” Yushir called.

“Yes, Your Highness?”

“Please hand me a bit of that dirt.”

My eyes flew open in time to watch my traitorous friend dig at a soft bit of soil in a nearby flower bed. The wet brown earth clotted in her hand as she carried it over and dropped the loose ball into Yushir’s waiting palm.

“Am I going to have to touch every element to figure out which one is mine?” I questioned him.

Yushir’s eyes twinkled and he had to suppress a mischievous smile. I noticed he kept a tight grip on my upturned hand. “That is the easiest way.”

“How many elements are there?”

“There are six of them but we might skip one.”

My heart slowly sank into my stomach. “Which one?”

“Lightning,” he mused as he splattered the ball into my hand. “There is more risk with that one.”

I dropped my gaze to the oozing ball in my palm and my face drooped. A sense of foreboding filled every fiber of my body as I imagined myself put through five circles of elemental hell, ending with a literal lightning round of Kentucky Fried Me.

“You appear to have some trepidations, Lady Roberts,” Yushir commented.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and wiggled my fingers to make the mud dance about. “I, um, I’m not sure about this.”

“Nonsense,” he assured me as he waved a finger at the muck. “Merely concentrate on the filth-that is, the dirt, and we will get through each of the elements in a short time.”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. The slurpy earth dripped through my fingers and plopped onto the ground near one of my bent knees. I wrinkled my brow in my attempts to feel anything even resembling an affinity for the muck.

Needless to say, I felt nothing for the wet, disgusting earth.

Yushir sighed. “It seems you have no affinity for earth magic.”

I peeked open one eye. “That means I can drop it?”

“Immediately.”

I gladly tossed it into a nearby flowerbed and brushed my palm against the grass. Yushir strolled over to Arian and whispered something in her ear. She nodded and hurried out through the palace archway. I eyed the interaction with the suspicion it deserved.

“What’s going on now?” I asked my teacher.

“She is merely fetching one of the elements,” Yushir assured me as he looked about himself. His eyes lit up when they fell on a torch that hung on one side of the arch. “There is little chance of this working, but we shall try fire next. Come over here.”

I stood and followed him to the torch tucked in its metal strap holder. Yushir reached into his robes and drew out a pack of roughly made matches. In a world of electricity, I would have asked why he carried such an item, but after several months of using candles, it was all too understandable.

Yushir struck one of the long matches and lit the torch. A soft fire crackled on the top of the burning bundle of sticks and warmed my cheeks. The prince stepped to one side and gestured to the fire. “Please place your hand over the fire.”

My mouth dropped open. I whipped my head between the flames and the expectant prince. My voice came out in a squeaky pitch. “Come again?”

He smiled. “I am not asking you to dip your hand into the fire but to hold it above the flames. The heat alone will surely tell you whether you have an affinity for the element.”

I stuck out my chest and took a deep breath. “Here goes.”

I stretched out my arm and hovered my hand a few inches above the dancing flames. The smoke and heat stained my palm with soot and my skin complained of impending blisters. After a minute of testing, I yanked my hand away.

“I don’t think it’s working,” I mused as I brushed off my hand in my other one.

Yushir held up his hand so the palm hovered above the flame. A small torrent of water formed in his palm and dropped a load into the fire, extinguishing it in seconds. “I did not expect it to. The ability to control fire is a very, very rare talent.”

“Who has it around here?” I wondered

He led me through the arch and shrugged. “Only Lord Eastwei.”