Chapter 7 - The Ark Of The Array Of Elements

"Ahem, this grumpy Aki wants to see what the Valkyrie is capable of. You mind?" asked Gillian.

"Try your best, love," murmured Ysabeau.

The happy Valkyrie composed herself as she proceeded to perform the spell. She stuck her small hand out towards the clearing. Her thumb had grown a small flower, while her index finger had conjured up a mini-tornado, just floating above the fingertip.

A small white orb enveloped by a pale blue flame was hovering above her middle finger, small pearls of both ice and water droplets danced above her ring finger. At last but not least, a bright orange fireball barely touching the skin of her pinky's fingertip.

As every Core Element was within the young girl's hands, she balled up little fist and punched the air.

"Ignis. Aqua. Terra. Ventus. Lumen. Obscurum. Ordinata Ex Elementis! (Fire. Water. Earth. Wind. Light. Dark. Array of Elements)" chanted Mavislin.

As she shouted the name of the spell, a ball of rainbow colors shot out from the small fist and tumbled to the clearing. Needless to say, the crater proved the child's origins.

To Ysabeau, it was more than enough to impress her. Gillian, on the other hand, wasn't as impressed as he was during the tryouts.

"It seems that your Elements still need work. You can pull it off, but the spell was imbalanced," explained Gillian.

The child's wings drooped in sadness but she quickly flew towards her trainer.

"Which part of it was imbalanced?" inquired the young child.

"The amount of Water in the spell was way too low. The Fire Element in that spell had overpowered most of the other Elements. If I had used a pure Water spell, it would've negated your spell in a second," explained Gillian, holding out his palm to the flying Valkyrie.

"What's negate?" asked Mavislin, hovering about.

"It means to cancel out an attack. If I've said that the spell has been negated, it means that your spell has been canceled. In simpler terms, it will not hurt me. It will simply disappear," explained Gillian.

"Hmm, how about this then?" asked the young girl as she closed her eyes.

As her wings opened further, she plucked out a feather. By grabbing the feather by its stem, she swung it around. The vane extended out, twisting and turning with an orange outline, before settling on a shape of a whip.

"Ignis Pinnam Flagellum (Fire Feather Whip)" chanted the girl, as the whip was revealed to be a strand of flames.

"Incredible," murmured Ysabeau, as she4 hovered around.

Though the whip was barely enough to hurt any high-ranking Mage, it could be useful in other ways. Gillian was deep in thought, figuring out if this child would have her uses on the battlefield. The man clapped, earning a small smile from the girl.

"That would be much proper. Let's stick to Single Elements first, then we'll work up the ladder," explained Gillian as the two girls came back to the house.

"What ladder do I need to work for?" asked the puzzled child.

Ysabeau giggled as Gillian sighed. The young woman ruffled the child's hair and gave a warm smile.

"What he meant was; We would be practicing on one Element first, then move on to controlling multiple Elements. Right now, if you were to use a spell, you might lose in a battle. But when you use a Single Element, you'd have more control," explained Ysabeau.

"Oh... I can do that."

"Good, I'm starving. Let's go eat."

After lunch was prepared and devoured, the small family sat on the cold ground. Little Mavislin was tired from the earlier scene, so she was taking a nap on Ysabeau's lap.

"We were fortunate enough to snatch her away from the Old Man Pond," said Gillian, looking at sleeping child.

"But was it the right choice?" asked Ysabeau, with a heavy heart.

"What do you mean by that?"

"This entire thing about taking her away from the Congregation and raising her as our own. Wouldn't it be safer for the Congregation to take care of her? She is a Valkyrie, after all. We wouldn't know how to raise her properly," said Ysabeau, spiraling off with her worries.

The Aki took his wife by shoulders and planted a loving kiss on her lips. This effectively quietened the worrying mother up.

"Hush, or you'll wake the poor child," said Gillian, smiling a cheeky grin.

"There's no need to worry about her. She will grow up someday, but she'll grow up knowing that she's got a family to back her. If we were to give her to the Congregation, they would more or less groom her as a weapon of mass destruction," explained Gillian, with a stern look.

"Trust me, I know of the Poisoned Pond's antics. That's why I took her away from there. It might endanger her, but the upcoming circ.u.mstance against the humans and the Campania, it's the safest bet for this child to be here."

The sleepy mother nodded and soon fell asleep.