She didn’t look like much. Shorter even than Kerrigan with hair graying at the temples and lines around her eyes. Since Fae so rarely aged at all, it was a shock to even see it. They could live for over a thousand of years before ever gaining lines. And many gave in to the abyss before letting that happen. Vanity and all.

“What are you all staring at me for?” she asked in confusion.

“Um, we’re here for air-magic training,” Audria said quickly. “Sir.”

“Sir?” the woman asked, straightening to her tiny height, a sparkle of laughter in her soft brown eyes. “Sir is for military types, I’m afraid.” She dropped a giant bag down onto the lone table in the magic training room. “Well, loosen up now. We’re not in the military here. The Society is only strict to traitors.” She made a slash gesture across her neck, and Kerrigan had to fight back laughter. “Anyway, you can call me Zina or Mistress Zahina if you must. I’m supposed to be teaching you air magic.”

She waved her hand, and everything in the room, including the five trainees, rose into the air at once. She clapped her hands, and they dropped back to the ground.

“Good enough demonstration?”

They all nodded with gaping mouths. Kerrigan had never seen anyone with that sort of control before, and she’d spent years sneaking in on air Fae practices.

“Good. Let’s get started. I didn’t volunteer for this post, but I owed Helly a favor,” she grumbled. “So, here I am.”

Zina moved them to equally spaced spots around the circular training room. She moved the rocks, water, and oil for the other elements to a spot at the center of the room, as if it were the easiest thing she’d ever done. The entire lot of them had to keep from staring agog at her.

Then, she ran them through wind drills. They had to pass a bit of air between each other as if it were a ball. If a person dropped it, they had to take a step forward until they reached the equipment at the middle of the room.

At first, it was easy, moving the ball of air around in a circle, feeling that tug from one to the next. Still, each of them dropped the ball at least once as they worked through it. Zina made them randomize the pattern. A person could throw it to whomever they wanted, even back to the person who had thrown it. They did all right with that until the blindfolds came out. And within fifteen minutes, all of them were at the center of the room. It was like none of them had ever practiced air magic, which was absurd. Kerrigan herself had done nothing but air in her fights, and Noda was a first-level air-magic user. The exercise made them look like amateurs.

“Where did you go wrong?” Zina asked.