For three days, Kael sat in the marked chamber and did nothing.

  Mora's instructions were simple: clear his mind, feel for the Aether, and do not—under any circumstances—try to use it.

  It was the hardest thing he'd ever done.

  The Aether was everywhere. It pulsed in the walls, in the air, in his own blood. It sang a constant, maddening song that made him want to move, to act, to do something. But every time he reached for it, Mora would appear from nowhere and smack him on the head.

  "Listening, not grabbing," she'd say. "You can't shape what you don't understand."

  Lyra sat with him sometimes, her small body still beside his. She couldn't feel the Aether the way he could—not yet—but she seemed to find peace in the quiet. Finn stayed away, preferring to help the Deep Home's inhabitants with their daily tasks rather than confront the strange power his friend now carried.

  On the fourth day, something shifted.

  Kael stopped trying to reach for the Aether and simply... let it be there. He stopped fighting the song and just listened. And slowly, beneath the chaos, he began to hear patterns.

  The Aether moved in cycles, like breathing. It flowed into the chamber from deep underground, swirled around the markings on the walls, and flowed out again. The markings weren't just drawings—they were channels, guiding the Aether like water in a streambed.

  "You see it now." Vex's voice was stronger than before, clearer. "This is how it was in the beginning. Before the Gilded forced it into their rigid circles. Aether is life. Life cannot be forced into boxes."

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  "Then how do I use it?" Kael thought back.

  "You don't. Not like they do. You ask it. You become friends with it. You dance with it."

  Kael opened his eyes. The chamber looked the same, but he felt different. Lighter. More connected.

  Mora stood in the entrance, watching him with an unreadable expression. "You felt it."

  "I think so."

  She nodded slowly. "Good. Now the real work begins."

  For two weeks, Kael tried to move Aether. He tried to push it, pull it, gather it, release it. Nothing worked. Every time he reached for the power he could feel so clearly, it slipped through his mental fingers like water.

  Vex was patient, but even the Primordial's patience began to wear thin.

  "You are trying to control it. You must dance with it, remember?"

  "I don't know how to dance with something I can't touch!" Kael shouted, frustrated.

  Lyra, who had been watching from the corner of the chamber, spoke up. "Maybe you're thinking about it wrong."

  Kael turned to her. "What do you mean?"

  She walked over and took his hand. "When we used to run from the enforcers, you always knew where to go. You didn't plan it—you just... moved. Like you could feel the right path."

  Kael frowned. "That's different. That's just—"

  "Just what?" Lyra's eyes were earnest. "Maybe it's the same thing. Maybe you've been using Aether your whole life and didn't know it."

  The words hit Kael like a thunderbolt.

  He closed his eyes and thought back to those chases. The way he'd known which alley to duck into, which wall to climb, which window to slip through. It had never felt like thinking—it had felt like knowing. Like the city itself was guiding him.

  "She is wise, your sister." Vex's voice was warm with approval. "The Aether has always been with you. You simply did not have a name for it. Now you do. Now... dance."

  Kael reached out—not with his hands, but with that same sense of knowing. He felt the Aether flowing around him, through him. He didn't try to grab it. He simply... joined it.

  The silver light returned, but this time it wasn't an explosion. It was a gentle radiance, spreading from his skin like dawn breaking. The markings on the walls flared in response, and the Aether in the chamber began to swirl, forming beautiful patterns in the air.

  Mora gasped. Kael opened his eyes and saw that he was floating—not dramatically, just an inch above the ground, surrounded by swirling light.

  "I did it," he whispered.

  "We did it," Vex corrected gently. "Dance partner."