After being sat cross-legged for almost an hour, Khai felt his feet starting to go numb. “I don’t think I’m doing it right” Khai said, standing up and steadying himself on the table nearby as his legs threatened to buckle after being immobile for so long.

Jorn had explained the basics of circulation before leaving Khai and Henny to practice for the last hour. Supposedly, Khai should be able to feel the Kaor ‘burning inside his chest’ as Jorn had described it, though Henny quickly disputed that claim and told Khai it was unique for each person and that ‘he would just know it when he felt it’.

After sitting for so long, breathing as he’d been instructed and trying to mentally push the elemental energy around his body, Khai was getting increasingly certain he could not feel anything inside himself. He hadn’t used any elemental aspect before, so the only way he might have a Kaor was when Spirit had spoken to him. She described it as a blessing, was that the same as giving an attunement? Khai made a mental note to speak to Jorn about that in private later on, it wasn’t that he didn’t trust the others in the Forge, but if he was wrong and he didn’t have a Kaor would they not want him here anymore?

“That’s okay, when you’ve never done it before circulation can be really hard.” Henny said, opening her eyes from her own spot on the floor a few steps away. “But once you get it you can do it whenever you like. It’s quite relaxing when you get the hang of it. Jorn claims that it helps you heal faster as well, but I haven’t had a chance to try that yet” She slowly got quieter as she spoke, as if realising she’d been speaking for too long.

Khai observed the woman for a moment, this was the most he’d heard her say at one time so far. He’d been beginning to wonder if silence was a common occurrence for the people here. Henny shifted under his gaze, seemingly uncomfortable with his attention being focused on her.

“Oh sorry I wasn’t staring I was just lost in thought…” Khai paused before continuing. “May I ask you something?”

“It’s about Hoke isn’t it? You want to know why he doesn’t speak” Henny replied. She’d pulled her legs to her chest, wrapping her hands around them and resting her chin on her knees.

Khai nodded.

“Honestly, we don’t know.” Henny paused a moment, lost in thought for a moment before continuing, her voice even quieter than it’s usual timid tone. Khai had to strain to hear her words. “Hoke and I were found when we were little, our troupe had been burned down by a group of Vagadar” Khai tilted his head slightly, eyebrow raised in a silent question. Henny noticed this and shifted uncomfortably for another moment. “Vagadar, Elf hunters” She brushed her long black hair back, tilting her head to show a pointed ear studded with three deep black gems.

“Oh, I’m really sorry” Khai said, now his turn to shift around uncomfortably. Henny nodded, looking back down and running her finger through a nearby patch of moss.

“Brennie found Hoke and I wandering around in the forest a few days later. Well she found Hoke carrying me, I must have passed out or something.” She swallowed, eyebrows furrowing for a moment as she recalled the memory. “Brennie brought us both back with her, she spent a long time trying to fix us both. But Hoke never spoke, she thinks it might be a mental block or something, but we don’t know. It was a long time ago but I can’t really remember what he sounded like” Henny trailed off as she drew near the end. Her eyes suddenly snapped back into focus and she stood up, red-faced. “I’m sorry I..I didn’t mean to go on like that. I know you only asked about Hoke and I..”

“That’s okay, I’m sorry for asking I didn’t mean to pry like that” Khai wasn’t sure what else to say. They both stood there a while, the silence extending past a comfortable length as they both avoided the others eye.

Henny was the first to break the silence. “Jorn mentioned you could use some help with elemental history?” Grateful for the offer of a new topic, Khai nodded. Eager to break the building tension from their sombre conversation. Henny gestured back to the ground. “Why don’t we practice the circulation position for a while and we can see what I can help you with?”

Rubbing at his legs that had only just returned to a comfortable state of feeling, Khai reluctantly nodded and sat back down, legs crossed with his palms down on his knees.

“I know we said before that you know the six Elementals. But do you know much about who they are to each other?” Henny asked as she sat across from Khai, also in the Circulation position.

“Not really no” Khai tried not to look embarrassed at his lack of knowledge on what seemed to be basic information.

“That’s alright. Hm okay where to begin” Henny paused a moment, eyes flickering as she debated where to start. “So the most widely accepted belief is that the six Elementals formed along with the world. Coming into being all at once and each claiming dominion over a unique aspect of existence.” Khai nodded as she spoke, enjoying the sudden liveliness that appeared in the usually quiet elves voice. “In the start, it was only the six in existence. They populated the land and sky with their own elements, each wanting to claim more than the others. The planet would shake as they each clashed with one another, until they finally found a balance.” Henny smiled as she recounted the history. “Spirit brought life into the world, creating all different kinds of creatures to roam the lands, exploring what the others had made. Once the animals had started to adapt over time, the Elementals worked together to create the different races, making each unique and with different affinities to the six. Then that was it, the legends claim that one day they just stopped appearing, only showing their presence by delivering those they deem worthy an Elemental attunement.”

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Henny paused to draw a breath, giving Khai an opportunity to ask a question. “So they all just left? How do they interact with people if they aren’t here anymore?”

“They are and they aren’t” Henny replied. Without opening her eyes she must have sensed Khai’s bemused look and she smiled to herself. “Some believe that they do still walk around, observing the world they created. Others believe they live in the ethereal, everywhere all at once but not visible to us In the physical world.”

Khai nodded, eyes scrunching in confusion. “So if they’re ethereal, how do they give people their attunements?”

“An attunement is like a connection to one of the Elementals. When you use an ability gained from an attunement, you are acting as a kind of conduit to your Elemental. That’s why you can only use a little bit at a time, use too much before your body is ready and it’ll eat you up, literally.” Henny said, her tone growing more serious.

“What do you mean? Like it’ll hurt me if I try to use too much at once?” Khai asked. His legs had already started to tingle with the faint ache of disuse once again.

“Kind of, if you go past your limit, especially while you’re still in the lower tiers, it comes with a cost. It doesn’t matter if its only a little bit, but you’ll know if you’re there and you have to consciously ignore that limit. But if you go past it, your body or your mind pays the price. Some people think it’s the Elementals way of stopping us from becoming too strong, others think it might be some kind of cruel trick, holding so much power just out of reach to watch us struggle with our own limits.” Henny’s voice remained strong, reciting the words as if a story told many times over.

“A lot of people burn themselves out before reaching Ruby tier because the desire for more Elemental strength becomes too much and they push themselves too far. It takes both strength of body and mind to be able to climb to the highest tiers, that’s why there’s so few people with that kind of power.” She paused, taking another breath and leaving an opening for if Khai had any questions.

He had a lot of questions, but not many that he thought he should ask right now. He needed to figure out what was happening with his own Kaor before he could begin to question how to advance through the admittedly intimidating tiers. Henny’s explanation had given Khai a much better understanding of how a Kaor was supposed to work, knowing what he did now Khai was less certain of his goal to get stronger. He knew it would take a lot of work, but the prospect of losing himself just to the training alone if he didn’t limit himself properly was worrying.

Thinking further on the matter, he realised he did have a question for Henny. “If you don’t mind me asking, what is your attunement Henny?” Khai was surprised it had taken him so long to realise he had no idea what either of the twins attunements were.

Henny opened her eyes, the corner of her mouth turning down slightly before she spoke. “I’m got a Plant attunement, but it’s not very strong. I can’t really do much with it, hence why I’m still only doing circulation training even though I’ve been training for over 5 years now.” She spoke softly, her voice returned to its previous diminutive volume.

“Plant? Is that some kind of version of the earth attunement?” Khai asked, puzzled by the reveal of the odd sounding attunement.

“Oh I thought Jorn had explained that part, sorry” She returned to poking at the moss nearby, the pretense of circulation apparently forgotten. “There is only six of the Elementals, but the Elementals had a tendency to..err..reproduce when they were bored” Henny’s cheeks flushed a bright red, the colour a stark contrast from her tanned skin.

“Wait, so there’s children of the Elementals?” Khai was stunned, whilst the majority of this was new to him, the revelation that there were more than the six deities he knew was shocking.

“The offspring aren’t considered as powerful as the main six, as far as we know there’s a lot of them. The record-keepers association try and keep track of all known attunements that have been discovered but there could be more we’ve never seen before. Mine’s a combination of Earth and Spirit, but I still got it from an Earth aspect. I’m not too sure how it all works, Jorn probably knows a lot more about that than me.” She explained.

“So do those elemental offspring also combine in the same way? Wouldn’t that make an almost endless amount of possible attunements?” Khai’s mind swam with the possibilities of an infinite amount of elemental combinations.

“No, or at least, not that we have ever seen. Only the divine six Elementals are capable of having any offspring with one another. That we know of.” Henny quickly interjected, halting Khai’s flustered ramblings.

Khai nodded and gave a quick hm as a distracted confirmation. The revelation of there being more potential attunements was oddly staggering, revealing that there were far more deities than what Khai had known to exist until now had a surprisingly large effect on how one saw their figure of worship. “I think that’s about all I can take for learning right now, this is a lot to think about. Thank you” Khai said, his voice distracted as he processed this new information.

“I think we’ve probably done enough Circulation for now anyway, I’m sorry if I went into too much detail, it’s been a while since I’ve tried to explain the history. I’m not used to going into it all like that.” Henny stood, her shy demeanor back in place as she findled with her hands in front of her.

“No it was perfect, thank you. It was just.. a lot to think about” Khai replied, giving her a genuine smile before copying her and getting up. He stretched out his legs and the pair made their way back to the cavern in a companiable silence.