"Hello?" Ryan's father answered the call nearly immediately.

"Hello," Ryan responded. "I just wanted to inform you about my trip into the Heisar."

"How did it go?" His father asked.

"There are three Heisars in the world with manalirate," Ryan said. "The Volnal Heisar is one of them."

"Three?"

"Mieria Islands has a Heisar which opened up in the last few days," Ryan said. "It's only speculated to have manalirate right now, but the smell of the resource? That's not something I can ever forget, and I definitely smelled it in this Heisar. Tyler?"

"It looked like the images of manalirate I have seen before," Tyler responded.

"Tyler says it looks like the images of it he's seen," Ryan told his father. "So the Heisar has manalirate, and they were obviously trying to keep us from discovering it, under the excuse that we were getting into pretty dangerous territory due to the creatures which made the Heisar their home. The Heisar actually has at least twenty-seven different things in it which aren't in our official listings, but the manalirate is one of the biggest ones."

If they were harvesting it as well – which the Novarax were more than likely doing – then they were using it or selling it somewhere. Any goods exiting the valley were inspected, which meant if they were being sold to someone, they were leaving the difficult way.

The most likely thing then was that the Novarax were using the manalirate to create something, and something large. Quite possibly, in an attempt to free themselves from those they had earned the ire of.

"I can look into what they are doing," Ryan told his father. "They'd not even suspect anything of it."

"Be careful with what you do," his father told him. "I'll be out there before the deadline, try not to cause any major issues before then."

"I'll do them after!" Ryan grinned at Tyler, who rolled his eyes. "Anyway, just wanted to let you know they're definitely up to something. I don't know if it's connected to the issue the elementals are having or not, but can find out with some more research."

"Be careful," his father told him. "Would you be able to ask the elementals to look into it? Or is that not within their abilities."

"Their senses can range up to several miles, from what I know," Ryan said. "But they-wait."

Ryan talked to most elementals using water or air, regardless of what their actual element was, and they could all understand him without issue. In addition, all elementals could communicate with each other.

"I need to ask them something," Ryan said. "Bye, Father."

Ryan hung up as his father began to ask something – likely how he knew about the manalirate suspicion and Heisar of the Mieria Island – and handed the phone to Tyler, before locating fresh socks and his.

"Are we going out?" Tyler asked as Ryan pulled on his footwear.

"Yes," Ryan answered. "We're going out."

Tyler grabbed their jackets and helped Ryan into his before pulling on his own, then led Ryan out, summoning Mary and the other two guards who were to escort them nearly everywhere. Ryan had them take him a fair distance out of the town, then he exited the car and manifested twelve orbs of water.

It took only a few minutes before a light elemental accompanied by a storm elemental approached. Ryan used his senses of water, light, and energy to sense around him and ensure he could understand the elementals.

"Hello, Blind Sun," the light elemental greeted him. "I am Shining Spear."

"Hello, Blind Storm," the lightning elemental greeted him. "I am Zap Bolt."

"Hello, Shining Spear, Zap Bolt," Ryan failed to keep a straight face at the lightning elemental's name, but knew it likely didn't matter, anyway. "I have realized that no matter which element I speak in, all elementals are able to understand me – and that all elementals can understand each other. This is despite being made up of a single element."

"You are wondering," Shining Spear said. "Why we can sense all elements if we are a single element."

"Yes."

Shining Spear shifted its colors, though Ryan didn't understand if there was a purpose behind it or not. He didn't know the differences anyway, even if he could sense them.

"Our senses," Shining Spear explained. "Function in two ways. The first way is that we sense the elements. The second way is that we focus on only our element. You perform a variation of the latter ability, using a spell to sense each element. You also use these spells simultaneously."

"How that varies from our natural sense," Zap Bolt continued the explanation. "Is that our natural sense is all elements at once."

"I can sense all elements at once," Ryan said.

"You are sensing all elements at the same time," Zap Bolt said. "When you do that, but you are not sensing them all at once. The senses remain separate. When you sense a drop of water through your sense of fire and your sense of air, you sense its temperature and its water as two separate things, even if in the same space. When we sense it, we sense its water and its temperature as a single thing. We sense the impurities of the earth within it and the way light bends through it as well. Any energy and electricity that may be charged into it. All of this is a single sense for us. It provides for us a perfect view of everything around us."

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Ryan added in his sense of fire to his active senses and created an orb of water in front of him, still and unshifting, which he then examined with his senses. It took him a few moments, but he began to understand what the elementals were saying.

To him, the four senses read the orb of water separately, even if they layered together to create a form for him. Each one was a separate input to him, much like his hearing, sense of touch, and sense of taste were separate.

What the elementals sensed, however, was a single input. Ryan could easily look at each sense individually even while all four were active – the elementals could not. They had to turn off that senses and turn on their sense of the element in order to look at something with less than full.

"I understand what you are saying," Ryan told the elementals. "It makes sense, now that I am actually paying attention. Do you know how I might merge all six senses into a single one? Sustaining them at a single time overloads me and causes me to fall unconscious each time."

"Magic is a muscle," Zap Bolt told him. "It is something you must use repeatedly to truly gain a feel for and improve. Yes, you can be talented with some things immediately, but there is always room for improvement."

"Sometimes," Shining Spear said. "You must tear a muscle so that it may heal stronger."

"You are saying," Ryan said. "That if I want to quickly expand my ability to sustain all senses, I need to use them all at once, at my limit, to the point it knocks me unconscious?"

"Yes," both elementals responded in harmony.

"Only then," Zap Bolt said. "Can you begin to merge the six elements into a single sense."

"Would you mind staying here?" Ryan dropped the extra orb of water. "As I attempt this?"

"We have no issue with it," Shining Spear responded. "You are more than welcome to ask us, should you have any questions. We are here to teach you, Blind Sun."

"Thank you," Ryan responded, then spoke with his mouth. "Tyler, Mary, others, please be advised that I may pass out several times. I shouldn't remain unconscious more than a few minutes each time. I am doing something with my elemental senses."

"Understood, sir," Tyler responded.

Ryan pulled in the four active senses and turned off his sense of fire, then turned on his sense of earth. With that active, he reached into the ground below with his magic and pulled up, carving out a chair of stone. Its form was rough, but it was his first time attempting such a spell, though he had considered it several times while on the islands.

The young god sat on the chair, then turn on his senses of fire and air, pushing all six elemental senses to their absolute limits, which stretched only a foot and a half at his level of ability. For a few moments, pain began to push into his mind, then Ryan passed out.

When he woke, his senses were off, so Ryan turned them back on, repeating the process several times. Other than the pounding headache that came from straining his mind, Ryan felt little effects from over-exerting his senses, though he knew that he still had a limit.

It took the young god nearly an hour to reach the point at which he could not manage the headache any further. At that point, Ryan could stretch all six senses out to just-over two feet in diameter.

Ryan switched his senses back to just water, light, and lightning, then rubbed his temples.

"That was painful," he told the elementals.

"I will not lie and say I understand your suffering," Zap Bolt told him. "But I will say that it will fade away. You are a god, no damage is ever permanent, your innate healing abilities will take care of it."

"Once the pain fades," Shining Spear added. "You will likely find your distance increased."

"Maybe a little," Ryan responded.

It was not a technique which he could use infinitely, either. There would be diminishing returns, and much worse lashback, the further he stretched it. That mattered little, as long as he gave himself a big enough range that he could manage all six at once for a short time for only one or two feet. Once he reached that point, he would begin to merge the senses together.

Ryan relaxed on his chair and talked with the elementals, turning back on his sense of earth so that he could play around with the form of his chair as he did. He fixed the unevenness of the seat and smoothed out its legs, seat, and back,

As they spoke, the elementals informed Ryan about their investigation into the incidents after their conversation the day before, as well as more in-depth information regarding the weather of the Valley of Storms.

"Speaking of that," Ryan said. "I just remembered, but I meant to ask yesterday, Zap Bolt, but why are you not able to recover by drawing on the energy around you? If you are all weakened heavily by the escape, that is."

"It is not the escape alone," Zap Bolt told him. "But the escape and the method of confinement. As to why we are not able to recharge using the natural storms which occur here, that is another matter entirely.

"With most elementals," it continued. "They live in an area with a high amount of their element. With us Sparky Sparks, we live in a symbiotic relationship with it. It thrives on us just as much as we thrive on it. There is a reason this is the one place in the world where such storms and effects are prominent – and is also the one place in the world with more than three Sparky Sparks there for more than a few days every few months."

"The storms are because of you," Ryan said with the elements as he realized the point, much as an ordinary person would speak aloud without realizing they were doing so upon a realization. "They draw upon your own energy as well."

"Indeed," Zap Bolt responded. "Should we draw upon the lightning of the storms to restore ourselves, we could cause a cataclysmic effect on the environment."

Ryan would ordinarily tell the elementals to just do it and screw the consequences, as he cared none for those living there. However, he cared about the resources in the Heisar and didn't want to lose those, even if it was only for that run of the time.

"Then," Zap Bolt continued. "There is the issue that it is insufficient for us."

"Insufficient?" Ryan asked.

"Yes," Zap Bolt answered. "Sparky Sparks are the only one whose draw is limited. We may be just as quick as it, yet it is more fleeting than heat. The amount of energy we would receive from a bolt of lightning is equivalent to the amount of electricity contained in a spark that dances from one finger to the next. While they are held together."

"Not much," Ryan said.

"Exactly," Zap Bolt confirmed. "We have the most difficult time of all elementals restoring our power through absorbing the element. Because of that, we must bide our time to restore our power, much in the same way humans must do so as well."

"But not gods?" Ryan asked.

"Gods must bide their time as well," Zap Bolt responded. "But most gods can restore their magic quickly."

"Ryan," Tyler said suddenly. "Did you just carve a fist with the middle finger up on the back of the chair?"

"Did I?" Ryan asked. "That was supposed to be the index finger. Let me fix that."

He could feel the amusement in the guards and servant, the four aware that he did it intentionally. Ryan fixed that as he resumed discussing various things with the elementals, continuing his carving task as he did.

Eventually, he asked the question his father had brought up.

"Zap Bolt," Ryan said. "Shining Spear, my father was curious if the Bright Spots or Sparky Sparks would be willing to look at things the native Slow Ones are doing and report to me about it."

"Of course," both elementals responded.

"We would be more than willing to give you full reports," Shining Spear told him. "Anything for you, Blind Sun."

"Thank you," Ryan stood, then sank his chair back into the ground. "Have a good rest of your day. I will likely come out here regularly for magic training."

"We will see you again," the elementals responded.

Ryan and his guards and servant returned to their car, then back to the mansion, where Ryan made straight for the dining room. More than anything, he was hungry, having forgotten about dinner due to the phone call and resulting discussion with the elementals.