“In fact, she should not go to bed until she no longer feels even the breath of the firewater in her head,” Fox agreed.

“I don’t think I could go to bed right now anyway,” she admitted. “I feel like a spinning top! Only in a good way, not a dizzy way.”

“I’m going to guess, because it doesn’t work that way for an Earth Master, that this is the effect of conquering the final Air energies and taking them into yourself,” Rosa told her. “Everything feels more alive, right?”

“And clearer, and sharper, and as if I am more in control,” Giselle told her eagerly.

“Eat,” Rosa scolded, before Giselle could launch into a longer description of how she was feeling. “From now on, you won’t have to wonder if lesser Elementals will answer when you call, they always will. But don’t take them for granted, ever, or you’ll lose the respect of the greater ones, and your control and power will fade. Treat them well, they’ll treat you well, just as always.”

“Is that why the Hu-Huk came to you?” Giselle asked Fox.

“I think yes. And that He understood that it would do me much good to see Him again.” Giselle could sense what Fox was not saying, that he missed his forests and plains, his land, and most of all his people and their spirit creatures.

“But now you know the Hu-Huk will come to you,” she pointed out. “And that the distance is nothing to him.”

“Even so,” Fox agreed. “A very good day.”

They talked without saying very much until Giselle finally felt completely sober, and said so. “Thank you, both of you, for today,” she added, with all the feeling she could muster (which was quite a bit at this point).

“It was a pleasure. I’m just glad it went smoothly,” Rosa replied, with a smile in her voice, and yawned. “And on that note, I am going to bed.”

She went up the steps into her vardo and closed the door. But Fox lingered a moment.

“Do not be surprised if the spirits visit you in your dreams,” he said, finally, as she waited to see what he would say. “This seldom happens for those whose spirits are of the earth. But for us . . . often. What happens during waking is often only half of what is to come.”

She felt a thrill, and a little frisson of fear. Only half? But . . .

“They will test your courage,” warned Fox. “And your mettle. Be prepared to hold nothing back from them.”

“What will they do?” she asked, one hand on the doorframe to steady herself.

But Fox shook his head. “I cannot say. Every test is different.”

And with that, leaving her without any answers at all, he turned and vanished into the darkness.