Page 23 of Eternal Light

“Your wolf? How exciting. Let’s see what you can do, then.”

The Magister doesn’t give Grayson any instructions beyond that, so Grayson dips his finger into the dirt with a sigh.

“It fills me up, but not overflowing like fire?” he says, confusion making it sound almost like a question.

“Fills your soul, you mean?” Nimue asks.

“Mmm. This is old. It’s been here a while, I can detect that…but…”

A second later, there’s a puff of dirt, and some rises into the air.

“Hmm…a Talent, possibly.”

“Next…can you move the feather?” Ignatius asks and slides a long red feather across the table.

Grayson moves the same finger he’d had in the soil to lift the feather and make it dance. The air in the room picks up, swirling loose papers on the desk across the room.

“Air? Right?”

“It is—but also, you chose to levitate the feather rather than just blow it across the table. We’ll see if you have a talent for flight next time, my dear boy. How exciting! A fellow flier would be thrilling, I must say.”

Flight? Gideon had said he’d witnessed Grayson dangling above the ground in the forest, but flying? No way.

The Magister works his way through the test for time (the hourglass), but it is inconclusive, given the medium is earth-based. Grayson had forced the sand on a reverse trajectory against gravity, but Ignatius hadn’t seen what he’d expected—nor had he elaborated.

Next came the withered plant, and as hard as Grayson tried, he couldn’t bring it back to any sense of greenery.

“Sorry, little guy,” he whispers.

“Finally, the last one that we can test here—the marble. Do you feel anything when you hold it? Where it originated? Who made it? Perhaps who used it last?” Ignatius looks eager.

Grayson shakes his head. “It’s just a big glass marble, sorry.”

He places it on the table, and it begins to roll toward the edge. Finn can only watch as it is surely about to smash on the wooden floor, but Grayson catches it in the blink of an eye, right before it lands.

One moment, he’s on the opposite side of the table. Next, he’s beside Nimue, marble in hand.

Ignatius claps and does a little jig.

“My goodness! Did you know that was going to happen and then teleport to intercept?”

“I could see it falling and smashing into a million pieces. It’s beautiful, and I didn’t want to see it ruined. But that’s just logic, no?”

“Perhaps, but we’ll take a closer look at a potential pre-cog and teleport Talent. We’ll need Luminary Travers, wouldn’t you say, Nimue?”

“I would. And look.” She points to the withered plant, where a small green shoot has appeared.

“Healing talent, perhaps? Or maybe Earth.” She smiles and uses her own magic to help the plant return to its former glory.

“Well, let’s recap, shall we? Fire, Air, and Traveling—Affinities confirmed. Suspected Teleportation Talent. Also possible Precognition, Earth, and minor Healing. Is that all?”

“Grayson, are the dreams you have different from the Traveling?” Leo asks.

“Dreams?” Ignatius asks as he slips the items from the test back into their compartments on the desk.

Grayson shakes his head.

“I just thought they were dreams until we visited the Archive a few days ago. I see myself and my mates in different time periods.”