Over the next week, Lila's training changed. Not because she became perfect, but because she stopped fighting the elements and started listening. Fire taught her to be brave. Water, to be patient. Wind, to release fear. Earth, to ground her.
The spirits adored her. They called her their "Child of Echoes," their "Last Flame," and their "Starborn Vessel." She didn't know why, not yet. But every time she touched her magic, she felt their joy. Their love. Their fierce protectiveness.
"You are what we could never be," whispered the Earth King one night, as she meditated beneath the moon. "We spirits cannot create. We can not be born. But you... you are a miracle."
They loved her not because she wielded them.
They loved her because she accepted them. All of them.
But not everything came easily.
The palace grounds had become her crucible, and her powers continued to fluctuate. Today, fire burned too hot. Wind cut too sharply. Earth remained stubborn. Only water soothed her like a balm. She slumped to the floor of the training hall, sweat clinging to her skin.
"You push yourself too hard," Cassian said from across the room, his voice low but not unkind. He handed her a cloth.
"Because I have to," she replied. "How can I help anyone—how can I help you—if I can't even keep my footing?"
Cassian sat across from her, calm as ever. "When you touched the curse in me, what did you feel?"
Lila hesitated. "Loneliness. Deep, aching loneliness. Not just pain. Like... a child locked in darkness."
His brow furrowed slightly, lips parting in quiet thought. "That's what it feels like. Always has. But when you reached for it... it changed."
She looked at him then, really looked. "I don't want to be your solution, Cassian. I want to be someone you trust. Not because I inherited Elira's soul, but because I'm me. Lila."
He was silent a long moment, then slowly reached inside his tunic and withdrew a small pendant—a piece of obsidian on a silver chain.
"It belonged to my mother," he said. "She believed the spirits were alive, not just forces. She said someone would come to free me. I never believed her."
Lila held the pendant gently. "But you believe me now?"
"I'm trying."
Later that night, Lila walked the gardens alone, until her feet led her to the Whispering Pool—a silver mirror nestled in sacred ground. As she knelt by the edge, the Water Spirit, Naelith, rose from its depths in a shimmer of moonlight.
"You have grown stronger," Naelith said, her voice a flowing stream. "But strength alone is not wholeness. You must learn balance. Trust. Intuition."
Lila looked at her own reflection, and then Elira's face shimmered back. Fierce. Determined. Burning. "Why do I see her?" she asked. "Am I her... or am I losing myself?"
Naelith touched her brow. "You are her—and more. The spirits do not simply choose heirs. They choose soul-bearers. Hosts of memory, and magic. You carry all Elira was… and all she hoped to be."
The answer sank into Lila like a deep tide. And she understood: She was not just becoming Elira.
She was becoming herself.
End of Chapter 23