The Magi (The Magi Series) (26 page)

After what seemed like years, the storm finally passed, and Elijah resumed elemental training. The moment he went outside, he was taken by the beautiful blue sky overhead. There were patches of clouds here and there, but none of them threatened snow. They were white and billowy. The wind was still blowing, although not as forceful as before, and the cold was still biting, but Elijah took in the sunshine and freshness of the day.

Olivia led him to the same meadow where he learned about fire. Once again, she instructed him to learn by observing, but this time he was instructed to observe two elements at once: earth and wind.

“How am I supposed to observe the wind?” Elijah asked, feeling the same helplessness he always felt when Olivia left him. “You can’t see it.”

“Rubbish!” Olivia responded. “Stop trying to
see
everything. You’re being trained to quit relying on only one sense. You can’t look for what it
is
; you have to see what it
does
.” Elijah looked at the ground.

“So what about earth then?” he asked. “It doesn’t really
do
anything.”

“You’ll have to
learn
what it does. That’s the point of this. You thought water didn’t do anything either, but the more you observed, the more you learned otherwise.” Elijah nodded and made a kind of snort indicating that he understood, but was not convinced. Olivia picked up her bag and walked away.

Elijah decided to start observing earth first because it was easier to notice than wind, but the more he looked around, the more overwhelmed he became. There was
too
much to notice! How much of the land was considered earth? He decided it was safe to say that the dirt was part of the earth element. He brushed away some snow to expose a little area of dirt underneath so he could touch and manipulate it. Elijah laughed to himself as he thought about teachers at his old schools yelling at children for playing in the dirt, and now he was being encouraged to do it.

He thought about the dirt as he gathered it up in handfuls, letting it fall back down on itself. Elijah knew that dirt was part of the earth, but what else was? Earth was different than fire because it actually created life instead of destroying it. But what all did it produce? He remembered learning in science class that the earth was rich in nutrients and minerals. It created and cared for life. It gave the plants a home to grow their roots.

Elijah looked at all the plant life around him. Even during the winter, the earth was protecting the life desperately clinging to it. The tallest trees began with something small, under the ground, where it was cared for by the earth until becoming the massive, beautiful forests he saw now. And those same trees now depend on the earth for life. He suddenly had a sense of wonder and appreciation for the earth. Not many things could
create
life, but the earth did. It took time and patience and continuous work to grow the world around him.

After he felt he had sufficient things to say about the earth, Elijah began to focus on wind. He found a rock sticking out from the snow and sat down to study more comfortably. By far, Elijah had more trouble finding characteristics of wind than any of the other three elements. He decided that in order to observe the wind, he would have to rely on senses other than his sight, like Olivia suggested.

He definitely could feel the wind. That much was for sure. It was currently blowing at his back in uneven gusts. There was no pattern to it. For a few seconds at a time the wind would be strong, and then, for no reason at all, it would stop. Then, the wind would strengthen yet again, but it never was the same. It was unpredictable. Unexpectedly, Elijah felt the wind from a different direction, hitting his side, and then it fixed itself and returned to blowing at his back. It definitely kept Elijah on his toes.

Oddly, when he looked up at the trees, he saw the wind blowing from what looked like a completely different direction. The tops of the trees seemed to be blowing north while Elijah felt it at his back, which meant it was blowing east. During his observation, it occurred to Elijah that the wind was actually manipulating other elements. He saw the trees being swayed to and fro by the wind, and he knew that after the snow melted and the ground was exposed again that it too would be blown around by the wind. He thought of the ripples of the lake and even the waves of the ocean that were controlled by wind. He thought of the fire that spread because of the wind. Could wind be the one element superior to all the others?

When Olivia returned, much later this time than the others, Elijah felt a lot less prepared to discuss his learning than he had with fire and water.

“Don’t get up,” Olivia said as Elijah, who was leaning against a rock, had started to rise and dust off his rear. He sat back down and Olivia walked over to the rock to sit down too. “So, what did you learn this time?”

Elijah gulped. “I’m not sure I did as well with this lesson.”

“Oh, come now,” said Olivia. “Talk yourself through it.”

“Well, I think that the earth element is huge.”

“How so?”

“It’s not just dirt, but it’s everything that lives inside the dirt.”

“Not just
in
the dirt,” Olivia said. “It lives
because
of the dirt. If there is no earth, there is no life. Keep going. What characteristics does dirt have?”

“It takes care of life.”

“Good. What else?”

“It protects life. It holds it. Like how the plants cling to it for support.”

“Does that sound familiar to you?” Olivia asked.

Elijah furrowed his brow. “What do you mean?”

“You said that life clings to earth for support and protection. Can you think of anything else that clings on to something for those same things?” For some reason, Elijah’s mind was drawing a blank. Olivia smiled. “Think about it and get back to me. Okay, what about the wind? What did you learn?” Elijah was still deep in thought, trying to answer her question about the earth.

“Um, I felt that the wind was unpredictable,” he answered.

“Yes. What else?”

“I actually have a question about wind,” Elijah said, interrupting their conversation. “Is it more powerful than the other elements?”

Olivia chuckled. “What makes you ask that?”

“I was thinking about all of the things that the wind manipulates. It makes the water move; it makes the fire spread; it makes the earth move too. It’s the only element that does that.”

“Are you sure?” asked Olivia. “Does water impact the earth?” Elijah pictured how the waves of the ocean would erode away the cliffs over time, and how rivers carve their way through the lands to make canyons.

“I guess so.”

“And does water impact fire?”

“It can put it out.”

“And can a mountain shelter you from wind?”

“Yes.”

“You see, Elijah,” Olivia said getting to her point, “each element is unique, but equal. They all have their own personalities; they all have their own strengths; they all have their own weaknesses. But one is not greater than the other, nor is one weaker than the other. They all are able to be great both by themselves, but they are especially great
with
each other.” Olivia stood up and began hiking slowly through the snow-covered meadow while Elijah followed her. “Do you know why I had you spend so much time learning about the elements without letting you try to move them?”

Elijah had wondered this for a long time, but he remembered Roddick telling him to trust Olivia’s methods, so he never said anything.

“No, I don’t.”

“The power that we have to control and move the elements happens when three things unite in your mind: emotion, focus, and knowledge. I have been giving you the opportunity during our lessons to develop your knowledge of the elements. Knowing the elements will make the rest of the training much easier for you. If you truly understand them, you will separate yourself from those who just know how to move the elements. The more you know
about
them, the more powerful you will be
with
them. It’s the difference between mediocrity and greatness. Do you feel like you know the world a little more than you did when you started?”

“Yes,” Elijah admitted, “but I feel like I just noticed things I hadn’t noticed before.”

“Isn’t that learning?” Olivia asked with a grin.

“I guess so. I’m just not sure how any of this works with helping me control them,” he said.

“You will,” Olivia promised. “But for now, I only want you to spend time focusing on what you have learned already. Next week, I will meet you at my home. We’ll have a cup of hot cider and talk about the keys to our power. I think you’re ready!”

The following week’s trainings marched on like always. Elijah continued to struggle with strength exercises and triumph in mental focus exercises. His discussion classes progressed normally, and the teacher informed them that they were going to spend the next few weeks discussing geometry. The students were instructed to embark on a project that would take the entirety of the next class. They were given a roll of measuring tape and told to find the surface areas of twenty-four shapes they found at the barracks.

“They can be the same shape, but they have to be different sizes. Thus, different surface areas,” explained Mrs. White.

Seeing as they were given no guidelines
how
they could go about finding their objects, Elijah, Paul, Isaac, and Adam decided to work together. Shortly after they got to work, Hannah met up with them and asked if she could join too.

“Great!” Paul said to Hannah. “Now all we need is one more person and we can all just do four and copy each other.” They all smiled at his joke (at least what they thought was a joke) and went looking for their objects. They decided to split into two groups, measure a few objects, bring the measurements back to the entire group, and work on calculating the area together. Elijah, Paul, and Hannah were in one group—Isaac and Adam were in the other. Hannah was the first to make a suggestion in Elijah’s group.

“What about the square footage of our bedroom floors?” she asked. “That’s a square right? That should be easy.”

“Sure,” said Paul. “Do you want to wait in the neutral area while we measure our floor, or do you want us to wait in the neutral area while you measure your floor?”

Hannah shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Why don’t I do it this time. Then you measure something later that I can’t reach.” Elijah and Paul waited in the neutral area while Hannah pranced off to her room.

“Hey, do you know her?” Paul asked Elijah as they waited.

“Yeah, we did our discussion project together a few weeks ago, remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” Paul said nodding. “Is she okay?”

“I think she is,” Elijah said, although he wasn’t quite sure what Paul meant by ‘okay’. “She’s real nice and easy to talk to.” Just as he realized what he was saying, Elijah blushed and looked at Paul who looked like he was holding in a smile. He raised his eyebrows at Elijah.

“Oooooh, I see,” Paul said dreamily, and then he patted Elijah on the back. “It’s alright, your secret’s safe with me.” Elijah could have died right there, but before long, Hannah came jogging back with some numbers.

“It’s not a square, it’s a rectangle. Sixteen by fourteen,” she said. Paul was still grinning ear to ear and glanced back at Elijah. Elijah wanted to slug him! Hannah looked at Paul then Elijah. “What?” Realizing Hannah was catching on to their looks, Paul spoke swiftly.

“Oh, nothing. Elijah had already guessed that it was a rectangle and not a square. He’s a clever guy, Hannah,” he said with a playful hint that mortified Elijah even more. Elijah kept his head down for fear that Hannah would be able to see his face turn as red as a radish, but she didn’t catch on.

“Okay, what’s next?” she asked.

The trio worked until lunchtime, gathering data and making measurements. They were eventually able to find a square to measure using one of the tiles from the washroom, and they also measured a couple of the circular stained-glass windows in the library. Finally, all five—Isaac and Adam included—met up at the dining area to eat lunch and compare findings.

“Man, this didn’t seem that hard when she assigned it,” Isaac said as he sat down with a plate full of salmon and rice. “How many things did you guys measure?”

“Nine,” said Hannah studying their paper full of sketches and numbers. “What about you?” she asked Isaac and Adam.

“Only five,” Adam answered. “But we got a few rare shapes.”

“Yeah,” Isaac said with a giggle. “One of the platforms for physical training is a perfect hexagon. Adam spotted it, and since we didn’t have a hexagon yet, we decided to measure it. Trouble is, it was being used at the time.” The others exchanged amused glances. “Yeah, Zempke had a bunch of second-level Novices using it for physical training. They were standing on it to dodge those big cylinder pounders. You have no idea how hard it was to get that thing measured. I had to jump on, get a measurement, then jump off before a pounder—or a student—clobbered me. Then jump back on, get another measurement, and then back off again. It took forever. They were so mad!” No one at the table could stop laughing. Elijah kept picturing goofy Isaac bouncing on and off the hexagon platform before the next student got on.