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It was growing clear to Maude that her talents were not nearly good enough to go head-to-head with Herrick. But never being one to give up so easily, she swore to herself that she would take him down in this first training session. They circled each other and quickly fell into a rhythm as they exchanged blow after blow of fire and water at each other. Without realizing it, they had fallen into a dance that they each knew as easy as breathing.

Being evenly matched with her opposinggalder, Maude felt herself growing tired very quickly. She had managed to land a few blows on Herrick that had resulted in burning holes through his shirt and pants, but nothing more than that. She hadn’t managed to do more than hold off most of his attacks, but even then, she had been held at his mercy a few times before they reset and started anew.

Throughout their fight, Herrick peppered in some instructions for Maude on how to focus her emotion as a funnel and not a burst ofgalder.

“Yourgalderis a part of you; it's not a well of power for you to pull from that does not come directly from your own energy,” Herrick said as he reached a hand down to help Maude up from where he had knocked her down with a blast of icy water. “Ourgaldercomes from our blood and energy. Use too much of it at once, and you weaken physically the same way as if you just ran a whole league without stopping, and the same way we struggle for energy when we are grieving or how we burst with energy when we are furious. Yourgalderwill feed off of that."

He paused to make sure Maude could stand on her own after that last hit, but she batted him away.

"Yourgalderis as strong as you are, physicallyandemotionally. When you reach your limit, your burnout will effectively take you out of the fight against your will. So, when you use too much of your emotion at once, youweaken yourself dramatically. You cannot pull from the nature around you like the Elven do when you burn yourself out.”

“I know that,” Maude gritted.

“But you don’t because you're still exhausting yourself like you have this bottomless pit of power to channel from,” he replied, his tone professional and calculating. “I can see you tire yourself out every time we come to blows with each other. It's like you're charging ahead to attack with no regard for your limits.”

Maude brushed the sand off her leggings and turned her back on Herrick, not allowing him to see the frustration on her face.

“I know what I’m doing,” Maude said roughly before facing him again, hands loose at her side for their next round.

Understanding flooded Herrick’s features before a sly smile appeared on his mouth. With every defeat, Maude felt her temper grow wafer-thin, and she could see that Herrick was about to make it so much worse before he spoke again.

“Is that really the best you can do? For someone who walks around with a sharp tongue and deadly promises on her breath, you really can’t back it up with yourgalder, can you?”

“Herrick,” Gunnar warned as he eyed Maude.

“With how often you’ve threatened me these last few days, I expected more from you,” Herrick continued, ignoring Gunnar.

Flames crackled between Maude’s fingers, the corners of her eyes darkening as her focus zeroed in on the beautifully aggravating man in front of her.

“Herrick, I don't think—” Hakon started to say, but Herrick’s next words cut him off, solidifying her reaction.

“No wonder you’ve been running all these years, coward.”

The world around Maude went silent, the darkness creeping in the corners of her vision blinding her to everything except her rage.

Hergalderwas rising in a tidal wave of power and beginning to ripple out of her as she tried to contain it. Despite using every method of restraint she knew, Maude felt her control on hergalderslip away from her with every heartbeat until she could sense the crest of her anger explode out of her.

She snapped. Waves of fire erupted from her in a huge blast. The trees in the oasis bent under the power of her emotion, taking control of hergalder. She saw Herrick’s friends duck and hit the sand so they would not be blasted into ashes from her fire.

Herrick had been ready, though, and as soon as he saw the blast leave her body, he created a wall of ice around her. The fire surrounding her body melted through the frozen water quickly, so he refroze it repeatedly until her rage had finally bottomed out and her fire was extinguished.

Maude fell to her knees in the sand and bent over on all fours, breathing heavily as her body cooled from the explosion that had been her fury. Limbs trembling, she focused on bringing the dry air into her lungs and calming her racing heart.

Head down so she didn’t have to see the hatred and disgust in the people around her, Maude kept breathing until she finally felt some semblance of relief. The weight of her power sometimes required that she burn off the excess energy as she had just done, but for someone with a short temper like hers, it could be dangerous to push too far.

Sensing that someone was walking over to her, she held out one hand. “Wait.”

They ignored her and crouched when they reached her spot in the sand, rain-soaked earth wrapping around her in a comforting embrace. Herrick. His words echoed through her, and she heard only the truth in his taunts.

No wonder you’ve been running all these years, coward.

Maude knew he was saying it to bring her over the edge so she would show him the depth of her power, but the words had slammed into her, reminding her how right he really was.

Not wanting to hear anything else he had to say, Maude pushed herself back onto her knees and tried to stand. When she looked up, golden brown eyes shone through the new darkness that had finally fallen over the desert, reflecting not disgust but absolute awe.

“You have a strength I have never seen before in anyone,minn eldr. The power I just felt through that blast could level a battlefield,” he said as he extended a hand out to her so she could stand.

She took it, feeling weaker than when they had begun an hour ago.