Chapter 38
She sat on the bed, staring at Xerath absent-mindedly. Her golden braids turned into a dazzling white under the sunlight, and the reflected light made her fair face almost translucent.
The book in front of Xerath turned a page on its own. In the gap between pages, she glanced up and saw Sylas staring at her.
"Not wanting to sleep or get out of bed, just wanting to sit and daydream?" Her grey eyes, half-smiling, met Sylas's emerald green eyes. "Sometimes I like it too."
"Um...," she couldn't decide whether to get out of bed or hide under the covers, but finally she uncovered the sheets and jumped out.
By the time Sylas got up, Xerath had already walked to the wardrobe and taken out a whole set of clothes. She stood beside her, watching her get dressed.
Sylas stood in front of the mirror, hurriedly putting on her clothes, and in the process, she was glad she made the right decision because if she hadn't gotten up, Xerath wouldn't have left. After she finished dressing, she realized she had buttoned one button wrong.
Xerath slowly walked over, unbuttoning her shirt one by one, from bottom to top, and then unbuttoning her pants, tucking the shirt tail in.
She had no expression, and her cold gaze would sometimes sweep over Sylas's face.
"Okay." She fixed Sylas's collar and cuffs, patting her shoulder. It wasn't strange for a clumsy child to struggle with putting on clothes, she had seen many kids like that in primary school. But Sylas might not be uncoordinated, maybe she just wasn't used to wearing clothes.
Xerath remembered the tangles of animal hide on the little one when they first met, pulling her hand back and folding it in front of her.
"Sylas."
"Yes, teacher!"
"I have a question."
"Please, go ahead!"
Her gaze, devoid of warmth, fell upon Sylas, yet she still felt happy.
"Why is it that you're so bad at controlling the wind, but our family's dishes remain unharmed? Do you have any special techniques for controlling water?"
"I..." Sylas's face suddenly turned red, she lowered her head awkwardly and twisted her hands.
Xerath leaned over to her ear and whispered, "It's okay, I won't punish you. We need to solve this problem together, avoiding it and punishing won't help."
"I... I don't have any experience..."
She refused to continue, so Xerath guessed, "Did you ask Hyectra for help?" She summoned the water lord steward Hyectra, who remained silent despite clearly knowing something.
"Hyectra, I remember I can make you speak by force." Xerath raised her hand and a golden light appeared. The pressure seemed to affect the surrounding air, causing Xerath's black robe to billow and Hyectra to become panicked, looking around as if searching for a place to hide.
Sylas quickly opened her arms to block it and then held Xerath's hand, "Teacher... it wasn't Hyectra who helped me wash it! It wasn't..."
"What happened then?"
She shyly lowered her head, "I... um... I washed it by hand."
Surprisingly, Xerath chuckled, "That's actually a good method!"
Like cracking ice, Xerath's smile softened her seriousness, causing Sylas to laugh along with her.
But Xerath stopped smiling, though she didn't let go of Sylas's hand, "But you should also know, we have to solve this problem. The wizards invented a cleaning spell to escape from this annoying housework."
"So that we can focus better on our work..." Sylas whispered along with her. Xerath squeezed her hand and raised an eyebrow at her.
Sylas shrunk her neck and stuck out her tongue.
"Alright, mischievous little beast, try describing the kind of problem you have."
Sylas honestly said, "I often can't find them, but when I feel them... they all suddenly come gushing out!"
"Them? Are you talking about 'water'?" Xerath narrowed her eyes at her.
Sylas sensed a hint of threat and quickly added, "Uh, yes, teacher, 'them' refers to 'water'."
"Show me."
Sylas had to put her hands out and quickly made a magic gesture, causing her body to sway a bit to adjust her balance. She blinked her eyes at Xerath and pursed her lips.
Her teacher smiled and said, "Don't worry, I can handle it."
Sylas patted her chest and softly said "ho." The wind, with its sharp ears, heard it and began to surround her. The elemental creatures' movements were too obvious for the Elemental King to miss. Xerath watched Sylas with a slight smile, supporting her cheek with her hand.
Sylas frowned and looked at the nearby elementals, feeling troubled. Because Xerath was present, she could only give them a stern gaze in a subtle manner.
Then she said "water," and the rare water elemental eagerly responded. They jumped out of the wind, but the desert was too dry. Even in the tower, the concentration of water elementals was very low. They gathered and condensed into droplets, but still struggled in the wind.
Xerath thought being favored by the elementals was quite troublesome. Her little Beastie seemed to be very well-liked by the wind, which might imply that she came from an ancient family of wind callers.
But she didn't seem to have many traits of a wind caller family—blonde hair, blue eyes, all beautiful like a doll.
"'Moist'," Sylas said.
The gathered water in the air quickly reached its limit in concentration. In theory, you couldn't completely drain all the elements from the surrounding space because they always flowed towards "nothingness." Water always went to dry places, and fire always went to cool places and lost its activity when cooled. They would never be too low and completely absent.
But this little amount of water definitely isn't enough to wash the dishes.
Xerath had a few questions and couldn't help but ask, "The desert is very dry, why don't you try opening the crack of elements?"
"This, this is my biggest worry!"
"It's okay, show me."
Sylas hesitated, looked at Xerath, then glanced at the empty space her finger was pointing to. She gently sliced through the air with her hand.
Golden magic dispersed from her fingertips, the intensity of the light indicating how powerful the magic waiting to escape was. Sylas carefully controlled them.
Xerath couldn't help but laugh. She changed position, propped her chin with a different hand, but the hint of a smile on her lips was immediately stifled by the intense turbulence from the crack of elements. She stretched out her hands, and all the wind immediately submitted. The crack of elements burst open, countless slimy blue transparent droplets sprayed out from the crevice.
They floated helplessly in the wind, quickly gathering into a large pile.
"Quick, close it!"
Sylas tried hard to grasp her hands and turned them in opposite directions. The crack twisted and shrank along with her movements, but baby-like droplets continued to struggle and spurt out from this very tight crack.
A large mass of water floated in the air. The archmage opened her hands, forming a net that held all the droplets, as if she were carrying a gigantic water ball.
"Oh my, oh my! What a troublesome bunch," Hyectra appeared again out of nowhere. Its hands caressed these babies, and one by one, they vanished without a trace. "They are quite fond of the young lady, too."
Xerath sighed, and Sylas cautiously lifted her eyes, only to see Xerath looking at her with a half-smile.
"Teacher, I'm sorry, but I don't think I can control the 'water'..."
Xerath approached from behind, gently placed a hand on Sylas's shoulder, and leaned over to whisper in her ear, "Don't be afraid, let's try again."
Kneeling behind Sylas, her hand slid beneath Sylas's ribs and lifted her arm, gently guiding her.
The crack of elements slowly opened, and the water on the other side of the passage became restless. Sylas turned her face away, cowering, squinting her eyes as if afraid of being splashed in the face.
With a soft "plop," a water droplet was squeezed out, followed by a series of them being cupped in the archmage's hand.
But Sylas's hand was held in a pair of warm big hands, and Sylas unconsciously clenched her fist. The crack of elements was forcefully pinched, twisted, and finally disappeared into the void.
"Control them, they are still in my hands."
What Xerath was talking about was the water droplet ball held in her other hand, not too big, but at least half the size of Sylas.
"Is it too much...?"
Sylas awkwardly took them over, and Xerath stuffed a plate in the middle. The plate rotated in the transparent suspended liquid, and was spit out from the other side. Sylas caught it with her other hand, and there were still wet marks on it.
"That's how it is, isn't it good?" Xerath said with a smile.
Sylas carefully threw the water ball into the sink, and the water ball slowly shrank. When it was about to be completely thrown into the sink, Sylas completely released control, and the water gushed down.
This tamed little wild creature let out a big sigh of relief and slumped in Xerath's arms as if it had been drained.
"I'm really afraid... afraid of flooding the living room."
"Don't worry," Xerath smiled and said, "You were making a lot of noise, but I still had control over everything."
Sylas thought for a moment and said, "I think the chaos at that time may not necessarily be more destructive than the order we just had."
Xerath chuckled, "Great, you already have a good understanding. But you're doing a great job controlling them, don't be nervous, you'll find a way to tame them. Just give it some thought."
She let go of Sylas and stood up, "I just offered one solution, you can continue experimenting with whatever you like and practice. Practice is the most important, don't be afraid of breaking things."
Sylas turned around and said, anxiously, "But, but..."
"Hmm?"
"You once said that I work to pay for my tuition."
"Yes, I did say that."
"But I think the damage I caused has far exceeded... exceeded the value of my work," she had seen Xerath give away a bag of coins for furniture, considering she herself had bought it for five hundred coins, "It has even exceeded my own worth."
