"Are you telling that due to the stable Cursed Elents in her body, Elysia is attuned to all elents, including their Cursed counterpart?" Salaark's eyes widened, and her voice rose enough to draw the babies' attention to her.
"Yes." Leegaain nodded. "Valeron isn't attuned to the water elent, and even if he were, his survival instinct would scream at him not to use Zero. It takes a madman like Manohar or an indomitable will like Balkor to overco a primal fear that powerful."
"I'm sorry, but you lost at the 'this is terrible' part." Elina said. "Is everything okay with the babies?"
"No, Elina. It's not." Kamila plopped on the nearest chair while Solus still struggled between sharing everything with Lith via their bond or just screaming in frustration. "Elysia has learned three very dangerous branches of elental magic.
"Cursed Elents are powerful enough to put an adult 'to sleep' with ease, even at the chore magic level and when conjured by soone as weak as an orange core."
"You too had an orange core until a while ago, and you told you could use chore magic to defend yourself." Elina was in denial, refusing to accept how an act of love could turn into sothing so terrible.
"Yes, but I had been trained for that, and none of my spells worked more than a few centiters away from my hands." Kamila sighed. "You've seen Elysia. She can shoot at soone as far as three ters (10') away-"
"Actually, it's ten ters." Leegaain corrected her. "Elysia was just giving you a demonstration of her abilities. She wasn't putting any effort into her spells."
"That's great. Thank you, Grandpa." Kamila snarled. "This is what terrible ans, Elina. Elysia can now blast away anyone she sees, has no idea how powerful she is, and no one is going to teach her how to control Mirror Magic as she learns it."
Elina opened her mouth to speak, but Solus stopped her.
"Please, Mom, don't say you're sorry." She sighed. "We got that part. What we need is a solution, or at least a way to do damage control."
***
It didn't take long for Raaz to notice the disappearance of his wife. He found Elina inside the tower with the others, and she told him everything, hoping for moral support.
"Don't worry, dear. We'll work it out. We always do." Raaz said, but his voice lacked conviction. "Where is Lith? Why is he not here?"
"There's no point in ruining everyone's day." Solus sighed. "If Lith leaves, so will Tista, and Garrik won't be able to play with the others until we at least patch this ss. Besides, we are already racking our brains."
She pointed at herself and the Guardians.
"No offense, Kami, but you have no experience in dealing with Mirror Magic, let alone using it."
"None taken." Kamila shook her head. "I already don't know much about the upper tiers of regular magic, and I'm pretty sure that everything I learned doesn't apply to Mirror Magic."
"It doesn't." Solus replied. "That said, Dad, I don't think one more person would make much of a difference."
It took Lith a while longer to notice that many mbers of his family were missing, but since he was under Salaark's protection, he assud that everything was fine.
'They must be taking a stroll through the oasis, napping, or anything else that allows them to take their eyes off that horror.' Lith shuddered every ti the rfolk village entered his peripheral vision.
Between the limited capacity of his wings and the wide area that he and the others needed to fill with world energy to allow Garrik to play with the other children, Lith could only hold on for so long.
"I'm sorry, guys, but I need a break." The mont he said those words, he saw sweet relief wash over Tista's face. "Let's get back to shore and have so ice cream."
"Ice cream!" The ntion of sweets made the kids rush toward the beach, relieving the Demons from their burden as they had to cover a smaller and smaller area with Swirling Wind.
"Thank you very much, Lith." Ryla said. "Garrik and I appreciated it a lot."
"Don't ntion it." Lith needed sheer willpower not to stare at her wet clothes now that she was out of the water. "Have you seen Kami?"
"Yes, she was teaching magic to the kids on the beach." Ryla pointed at the shoreline. "Then, Kamila and Solus rushed away."
"Teaching magic?" Lith echoed. "I'm sorry, Ryla. I have to go."
He used the Watchtower to locate everyone and the Warp Mirror to join Solus and the others.
"Hi, sweetie." Elina said with a sad smile. "I made a huge ss."
"What are you talking about, Mom?" Lith asked. "Solus?"
A partial mind fusion brought him up to speed.
"Farm sideways!" Lith checked that everyone was alright before asking: "Now what?"
"Good question." Salaark shrugged. "I wish we had an answer."
"We have already told Elysia not to practice any form of Mirror Magic and explained to her in age-appropriate terms how dangerous it is." Leegaain pointed at the baby girl, who looked mortified.
" no ba, Dya. no ba!" Elysia said with an apologetic tone. "So-y!"
"You're not bad, baby girl." Lith took her in his arms and kissed his daughter's forehead. "This isn't your fault. This isn't anyone's fault."
"It actually is." Elina sighed. "I should have minded my own business or at least asked your permission before teaching the babies how to read and write."
"Let's be honest, Mom. You pushed things forward, but this was bound to happen sooner than you think." Lith sighed. "Val is already two years old and understands us better than most kids would at three. Isn't that right, son?"
"Yes, Dad." Valeron nodded. "Most words simple and easy to learn."
"See?" Lith ruffled Valeron's hair and took him in his other arm. "It wouldn't have been long before he asked us to teach him how to read, just like I did when I was just slightly older than him."
"I already asked." Valeron shrugged. "Shargein, Grandma, and Grandpa said no."
"My point exactly." Lith replied. "Valeron is brilliant. Be it three or six months from now, soon we would have taught him how to read, and Elysia would have learned with him. At that point, we'd be in this situation anyway."
"True, but with Elysia's developnt speed, in a few months it would be much easier for her to understand why we don't want her to use magic and how to control her powers better." Elina said.
"I know, but it wouldn't bring us anywhere closer to finding a solution." Lith wanted to console his mother, but he couldn't deny the truth of her words. "Can I see the magic words?"
Solus handed him a piece of paper, and the mont he read its content, he felt sothing clicking inside of him. It was the sa feeling he had experienced as a child when he had first heard the magic words associated with each elent.
"I feel wariness, not fear." Lith studied the magic words one by one before focusing on the hand sign for Jerak that Solus had drawn based on Elysia's finger movents.
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