elemental 03 - whitecap Read Online Free PDF

confused. 
    Her grandmother nodded. “When there is no ruler of a particular element, the other elemental rulers are called upon for their opinion. I refused to offer an opinion either way; I abstained from voting. But when I die, there is no immediate successor to my position—there’s no heir to the house of water. If you become the ruler of air will have direct power to decide the fate of any and all air elementals, as well as forming an opinion on others. There’s a monarch for earth, and one for fire; the ruler for earth voted the family should be obliterated, while the fire queen voted for them to be saved. If you became the ruler, your vote would determine their fate. And believe me, you won’t be allowed to abstain from deciding. This issue has been ongoing for years; the elders have been pressuring me all along for my decision on the matter.” Lorene took a deep breath, expelling it in a sigh. “As my granddaughter, while you’re not the ruler of the house of water, your opinion will have clout in that house—whoever is the proxy for the water house, if they’re asked, will likely stick with your opinion.” 
    Aira nodded, already feeling the weight of the decision that might come to her.  “But isn’t there a proxy for the house of air, then? Why haven’t they voted?” 
     “When it was suggested that you might be in contention to rule the element, the proxy for air said he didn’t feel comfortable casting a vote—particularly since I refused to.” She smiled slightly and drew another deep breath. “If you’re going to be in contention, you need to be prepared for it.” 
    Aira thought about what her grandmother had said before. “Grams, you said I would be in contention when you died.” 
    Her grandmother’s green eyes stared into hers and Aira felt her own eyes burning with tears. “We don’t have very much time,” she said simply. “Let’s get to work on your lessons.”
    Aira pushed aside the bitter sadness she felt at the sudden knowledge that she didn’t have much longer with her grandmother, and tried to focus her mind entirely on the lesson. Her grandmother brought out a heavy tome, a book of air-related magic, and opened it to the more advanced spells. 
    “It’s all well and good that you’ve found a sudden knack for the persuasion ability that comes along with your alignment,” her grandmother said wryly, “but you need to be able to control it, to use it with finesse. When I saw you’d gained that talent, I started researching magic associated with it.” 
    Aira struggled to keep her focus on the lesson. She was able to read the text, to pronounce the incantations with no problem—but a spell without intent, even for an elemental, was difficult to manage. She learned how to enact hypnosis on another person, how to manipulate the emotional state of another person, and other variations on the basic premise of persuasion. There was no one for Aira to practice on specifically; her grandmother was impervious to her persuasive abilities. Even when Aira tried a spell that would take away whatever pain she was feeling. It was not a healing spell—the basic illness would still be there, unlike the spells her grandmother excelled in—but it could give the other person relief, or allow them to forget their pain. 
    By the time Dylan and Aiden returned, Aira felt she had achieved a certain level of mastery on the particular aspect of her abilities they had focused on for the morning. Her grandmother also told her the two of them would be training Aiden and Dylan both to be impervious to her ability to compel. 
    “I have a great deal of faith in you,” her grandmother had said with sadness in her voice. “But I also know the temptation to manipulate anyone and everyone, to force them to do your will, can be too strong for even the most well-intentioned air elementals who are given that ability. So for your own safety, we’re going to protect your guardians against your