I stood there, panting, my eyes blazing with a furious amethyst, staring at the gaping chasm I had just accidentally created. My tattoo pulsed wildly, mirroring the chaos. I felt utterly drained, but also a terrifying, almost manic exhilaration. I hadn't meant to do that. I hadn't meant to do anything but make a tiny tremor.
Violet and Lyra stood frozen, their faces a mixture of shock and profound awe. They stared at the massive fissure, then at me, then back at the fissure, as if trying to reconcile the small human with the geological event.
"By the Ancestors," Violet whispered, her voice barely audible. "You didn't just make it tremble, Cassandra. You made the very earth tremble. You forced its potential to fracture. Another display of External Power Amplification, but on a scale… unprecedented."
Lyra, ever the calmer of the two, slowly approached the edge of the fissure, peering into its depths. "And a rather impressive display of Reality Distortion on a fundamental level. You didn't just move the earth; you redefined its integrity." She turned to me, her Emerald eyes wide with a new, almost fearful respect. "Cassandra, you are truly a force of nature. A very, very destructive force of nature."
"Yeah, I'm starting to get that," I mumbled, my voice flat. "I'm going to be the Fae Witch who accidentally causes an apocalypse every time she has a bad hair day." I looked at my hands, then at the gaping maw in the earth. "So, how do I un-fissure this? Do I say 'Close!'? Or 'Earth, get your shit together!'?"
Violet sighed, a long, weary sound, but there was a faint, almost imperceptible tremor of amusement in her voice. "Perhaps we should leave that for another lesson, Cassandra. For now, you are once again severely drained. And we have a rather large hole to explain to the Heartwood Elders."
I groaned. "Oh, joy. More explaining. Maybe I can just tell them it was a very enthusiastic gopher."
Lyra chuckled, a genuine, hearty sound that cut through the tension. "I doubt they would believe you, Cassandra. But perhaps… perhaps this is exactly what we needed. A clear demonstration of the raw power you wield. It is not about control, as we understand it. It is about channeling that raw force, that boundless potential, with absolute intent." She looked at me, her emerald eyes thoughtful. "You are not meant to be a gentle whisper, Cassandra. You are meant to be a roar. We simply need to teach you which direction to point it."
My stomach did a nervous flip. A roar. That sounded… terrifying. And exhilarating. The thought of wielding that kind of power, not accidentally, but on purpose, was a dizzying prospect. I was a walking, talking force of nature, a Definer of State, an Amplification machine. And I had just accidentally opened a chasm in the Heartwood. My journey to master the Voice of Echoes was going to be less about learning spells and more about learning to master the raging storm within myself. And right now, that storm felt like it was just getting started.