Emily rejoins her friends, and they set off into the tunnel, following the river upstream.

“How are we going to find our way out from here?” Tom asks as they leave the underwater passage behind.

“Easy,” Emily responds, reaching into her belt and pulling out the first log pose they used to find The Waters. “With this. We just do the same thing we did when following the Diver and try to go in as straight a line as possible in the direction this points. It may take a little while, but it shouldn’t be too hard.”

They trek on through the tunnels, killing anything that gets in their way and occasionally stopping to collect herbs and crystals. Every so often, Emily rewinds a day to save the group travelling down a long dead end, speeding up the journey but making it drag even longer for herself.

A week and a half later, halfway through the afternoon, Emily raises a hand and gestures for everyone to stop as they approach a new cavern.

“There’s a strong mana signature ahead,” she warns everyone, glancing back over her shoulder at them. “It’s almost certainly a third circle beast. Be careful.”

Dante grows excited at the prospect of a hard fight, a savage grin spreading across his face.

“What is it?” Hester asks as they slowly move forward, confusion in her tone. “Haven’t your scouts seen it?”

“Nope,” Emily says with a grin matching Dante’s. “I can feel it leaking mana from here. We aren’t close enough yet for my scouts. I think it’s already spotted us, though, but it’s not approaching.”

Her friends are surprised, their interest deepened by the reveal.

“What makes you think it spotted us?” Juliana asks.

“A few moments after we got close enough for me to feel it, its mana started fluctuating a lot,” Emily responds, feeling the faint bubbling mana swirling around them as if in excitement, getting stronger as they approach. “But I don’t feel any hostility.”

She watches through the eyes of the bird flying through the tunnel ahead of them as it arrives in a small cavern, only a dozen metres across, leaking the powerful presence. However, looking around through its thermal vision, she doesn’t spot a single creature in the room, nor a hint of heat near the surface of the large pool in the centre.

It must be underwater.

She keeps the bird focused on the water as they steadily grow closer, watching for any changes. They step into the cavern, Emily in the lead with her Claws drawn, and everyone else following behind her, muttering chants in preparation. They look around, their gazes a mix of caution and curiosity as everyone’s focus quickly gathers on the pool of water in the centre of the room, the only notable thing other than the three other connecting tunnels.

Emily approaches the water’s edge, feeling the mana pouring out from within, but stops and steps back as the surface begins bubbling. She prepares a defensive spell, a large silver magic circle forming behind her and hanging at the ready as the surface roils.

The bubbling pool shifts, as a mass of water and mist slowly starts to rise in the centre. Emily looks into it through her bird’s eyes, expecting to see the outline of a creature within, but she still sees no heat.

An attack?

She waits with bated breath, expecting the water to fly at them suddenly, but, instead, it continues rising, drawing in more mass until it breaks free of the surface. The floating water continues to bubble as it starts to shrink, the mist within flowing back into the pool below, revealing something glowing blue in the centre, as the rest of the form takes on the faint blue hue of pure water.

Emily’s eyes light up with recognition as the bubbling subsides, leaving a floating orb, no larger than Emily’s torso, of crystal-clear water with a fist-sized glowing blue core at the centre.

“An elemental!” she mutters in surprise, sending a wave of shock through her friends.

“Seriously?” Enzo asks incredulously, staring at the floating orb in wonder. “To think we’d find a dungeon and an elemental in one expedition.”

“Are they rare?” Tom asks, admiring the creature with caution still in his gaze. “Are they dangerous?”

“Possibly,” Emily says, stepping forward and holding her hand out palm up. “But I don’t think so.”

She gestures for her friends to stay still with her other hand as she slowly approaches the water’s edge.

“Elementals’ personalities depend heavily on what element they are,” Enzo explains to Tom as Emily moves forward. “A water elemental is unlikely to be outright hostile, but there’s still a chance it might be. The fact that it revealed itself peacefully is a good sign though. If it was hostile, it probably would have stayed in the water spewing attacks at us.”

Emily tunes them out and watches the elemental for a reaction to her advance. It quivers, shaking almost excitedly before slowly floating closer to her. She pauses, becoming unnaturally still as she waits for the mass of elemental mana to close the distance itself.

It approaches slowly, pausing a few centimetres away from Emily, letting her get a good view of the glistening, gem-like core suspended in its centre. The creature’s surface shakes and bends as a small tendril of water reaches out for Emily’s hand, pressing down into her palm. The moment she makes contact with the elemental, she feels a cool, calming sensation spread through her body.

When the sensation reaches her heart, the circles of power surrounding it seem to resonate with the sensation, taking on the tint of water and flooding her system with water-attributed mana. Following her instincts, Emily lets the water mana bubble out of the skin on her arm, sending a stream of ethereal water back into the elemental.

Her mana starts to drain as power flows out of her, but, in response, the elemental pulses, a bright blue light flowing through its body from its core and connecting to her hand. She feels a powerful, pure water mana flow into her body, heading straight for her heart where her circles quickly pull it in, breaking it down and refilling her reserves instantly, a fraction larger than before.

It’s boosting my cultivation!

The elemental ripples excitedly as they circulate their mana together, a feeling of joy spreading to Emily across their connection, bringing a smile to her lips.

“Thank you,” Emily says to the elemental as it floats closer, its tendril retracting until its body rests on her palm. “Would you like to meet my friends?”

She feels another burst of joy across their connection and takes it as a yes, turning and gesturing for her friends to approach.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“It’s safe,” she says to her friends, removing the last of their reservations. “Come say hi.”

They quickly walk over, curiosity and excitement plastered across their faces as they look at Emily, her arm wrapped in water, talking to the elemental.

“Can it understand you?” Juliana asks as she stops beside Emily, her gaze locked on the orb of water.

“Yes,” Emily says, attempting to replicate the elemental’s method of communication by imbuing her mana with thoughts of encouragement. “I can feel its emotions through our link right now.”

The elemental seems to understand her message, stretching out a tendril to offer to Juliana. Seeing the presented limb, Juliana reaches up and touches it. However, after a few seconds the elemental ripples and retracts its tendril, sending disappointment across its connection with Emily.

“It felt calming, but nothing else,” Juliana says, looking at Emily with concern in her eyes. “Did I do something wrong?”

Emily shakes her head, sending the elemental reassurance.

“No, I don’t think so. It’s not angry or anything, just disappointed. I think it’s related to your element. It's water mana that’s connecting us right now, so I think it can’t create a connection with you because you can’t send water back. Hester, how about you try?”

“Okay,” Hester says, stepping up to the orb and presenting her hand like Emily did, waiting for the elemental to initiate.

Another tendril splits off from the orb, and this time Hester has a similar reaction to Emily, water mana pouring out of her hand to join the orb.

“Woah,” she exclaims as the connection is made, and Emily feels another burst of joy from the elemental, this one mixed with a hint of confusion as well.

The elemental quivers for a moment, pulling up from Emily’s hand and keeping a tendril connected before dropping back down again a moment later. A more complicated mixture of emotions flows into Emily, and her spare cores quickly pick it apart, trying to unpick the meaning.

“What does that mean?” Hester asks, clearly confused by the mixed signals.

“I think,” Emily says, with a chuckle. “It can’t work out which one of us it likes more.”

The elemental shakes frantically, and another pulse of emotions flows into Emily and Hester, with reassurance and affection mixed with a few more abstract signals, as if trying to communicate something beyond emotions. Emily quickly breaks down the signals, trying to understand their meaning as the elemental keeps changing them.

“What-“ Dante starts to ask, being silenced immediately when Emily raises a finger to her lips and shuts her eyes.

After a few moments, Emily opens her eyes again and starts speaking.

“I think it’s trying to say that it likes both of us, but our connections are different.” A burst of happiness pushes Emily in the right direction as she continues her translation. “Hester’s closer to it? But I’m more connected to it? Hmm, no, that’s not quite right. Hester’s element is closer to it, but it can still transmit to me more easily? Closer.”

Emily’s eyes widen slightly as the meaning of the strange communication clicks in her mind.

“Hester’s elemental affinity is more aligned with it, but my connection with mana is stronger.”

The elemental bubbles excitedly, bobbing up and down on Emily’s hand in agreement.

“Wait, Hester’s more aligned with it?” Enzo says with confusion, turning a questioning gaze on Emily. “How is that possible? I understand she’s got a great affinity for water, but didn’t you complete a full manifestation for water on your first attempt? She only completed hers a few weeks ago. Surely you have a higher affinity.”

“Not quite,” Emily says, her friends curiously hanging on her every word. “My ability to manifest so many elements is due to a high elemental comprehension, not affinity.”

“What’s the difference?” Dante questions.

“There’s a massive difference. One moment,” she says as an eager grin spreads across her face.

Emily turns her full attention back to the elemental, relying on her analysis of the elemental’s communication to try and transmit a message of comparable complexity herself.

‘Break… Connection… Small… Time… Stay… With… Other… Please?’

She forms a blend of mental signals into a simple message and sends it to the elemental. The orb of water doesn’t react for a few moments, deciphering Emily’s message, before it suddenly droops around her hand while sending back a simple mix of understanding and sadness.

A moment later, it returns to normal and lifts off of Emily’s hand, breaking their connection and dissipating the flow of water around her arm, moving to sit on Hester’s instead.

“So,” Emily says, taking a few steps away and turning to face all of her friends at once. “Affinity and comprehension. To start with, what do you think these two terms mean?”

“How connected you are to an element, and how you understand it?” Ivor signs with a questioning tilt of his head.

“Exactly! These are the two things you need to use an element. You use your comprehension to form a solid mental image of the element, and your affinity to innately connect with it. The higher your affinity, the easier comprehension will come naturally, and the easier it will be for you to control the element. But, and here’s the point most of The Covenant’s mages seem to forget, you don’t need a high affinity to use an element. Practically everyone has a connection with fire, water, air, and earth, hence them being called the common elements, and most people also have some affinity with either light or darkness as well. Just think back to when you first tried to manifest elements, how many of you got some reaction from something other than the element you use now? No matter how small.”

All of her friends seem surprised by her words, taking pause to think back to their first attempts at finding their element. After a moment, they slowly start raising their hands until everyone has.

“See. All of you would be able to cast spells with a multitude of elements if you studied them and built up your comprehension, but a single specialisation makes it easier to go further so most people don’t. My initial manifestations just followed that to the extreme. I do have a high affinity for a lot more elements than most, but the main cause was my mind being very good at forming mental images, and my understanding of the elements being very high to start with, so I ended up with a lot of successful manifestations. However, I still have my natural alignments. Look.”

Emily raises both of her hands before her, pouring mana from them with a different element in each. Above her left hand, a flickering orange flame with glistening white sparks forms, growing to the size of her fist. Above her right, streams of lightning form, violently crackling as they form into a single bolt that grows to the same size as her forearm.

“I’m using the same amount of mana to form each of these,” she explains. “But do you see the difference?”

“The lightning is bigger,” Tom says, receiving an approving nod from Emily as her gaze sweeps across everyone else, still waiting for another answer.

“It’s more violent?” Dante questions, looking between the two elements with his eyes narrowed in concentration.

“No,” Hester says, noticing how Emily doesn’t react to his question. “It’s more controlled.”

Emily’s mouth breaks into a wide smile as she nods.

“Correct. It looks more violent, but it’s actually more controlled since lightning itself is a harder element to handle than fire. And yes, it’s larger. See, my affinity for fire is my third strongest, whereas lightning is my strongest. You’ve probably noticed I tend to use more lightning spells than anything else, and that’s because, for the same mana cost, I can create and control stronger spells.”

“Is water your second highest?” Enzo asks as she releases the two manifestations.

“No, it’s metal. Water’s probably my fourth or fifth? I’m not sure exactly since it’s harder to tell the difference between my lower affinities, but it’s definitely not my strongest. But, for Hester it is, so it’s no wonder that the elemental likes her so much. As for why it likes me even though my water affinity isn’t that high? It’s probably because I’m a higher circle, so my mana is denser and purer. Also, I have a high connection with mana itself.”

“You can have an affinity for mana?” Juliana asks, taken aback by the statement.

“Yep! Have you ever heard stories of the first mages?” Emily asks, noticing Tom’s eyes light up with excitement.

“I have!” he says. “I read about them. The first mages discovered magic when they found an oasis in the desert that passed over a mana vein. They said that the mana spoke to them and revealed its secrets, allowing them to awaken.”

“Exactly. Some people have a high connection with mana itself, and that’s the base requirement for becoming a mage. Even normal unawakened mortals have elemental affinities, but it’s the connection with mana that allows us to realise them.”

As her friends are processing the revelation, Emily approaches the elemental again and places her hand against it, recreating their connection instantly.

“Is that how you know all this? Neither our teachers nor families have ever mentioned this before. In fact, I was always told stories of the first mages were fairytales,” Enzo questions with a raised brow.

“Partially. And I’ve read a lot, including an account from a fourth circle mage,” Emily says, using Gaius’ notes as an excuse for her system knowledge. “I also don’t know if the stories about the first mages are true, so take my words with a grain of salt if you want. What you gain from what I say is your choice, I just enjoy sharing my knowledge.”