But then the heat and the roar of fire is gone—replaced by the cool rush of water surrounding me in a perfect, shifting sphere. The water soothes my scorched skin, the pain ebbing away like a retreating tide.

The water elemental. He's saving me from the fire elemental. But why?

Steam rushes away from the outside of the sphere in a deafening hiss, even as the fire elemental roars in rage and blasts more magic toward me. Through the distorted wall of water, I see the water elemental standing between us, one arm extended toward me, the other toward the fire being.

"Do you truly fear a human so deeply, Pyraxis?" The water elemental's thoughts ripple through my mind like waves lapping at the shore.

"You dare call me a coward?" The fire elemental's response is more of a bestial roar than true words, burning through my thoughts.

"No. I ask you to seek understanding. Destruction will bring no answers, old friend. We need to exercise calm. Serenity. Patience." The water elemental's mental voice is deep and steady, like the ocean depths.

"And if our patience allows her power to fester? To destroy balance? To kill more of our kind?" It's the Earth elemental speaking now, her thoughts heavy and slow like the movement of mountains.

"If the fates bring her now, then she IS balance." The air elemental's voice is light and quick. "We should let the winds of fate blow as they blow. It's not our job to stand in their way."

"We should kill her now and put an end to it," Pyraxis hisses, flames licking at the edges of my water shield.

"Our destruction, or our salvation," the water elemental says. "We will not know which future she might create if we destroy her now. All we can know is to continue as we have… we’ve seen the folly in this."

"Our actions here may be of no consequence, in the end,” the air elemental adds. “We should do nothing. We should let fate flow as it flows, as it will always flow."

When the water sphere finally thins, Pyraxis glares at me but doesn't raise his arm again. "I still wish to kill her," he says in my mind, his voice scorching my thoughts.

I decide I'm officially not a fan of "Pyraxis." In fact, he can get fucked.

"She thinks insolent thoughts." The fire elemental's flame-face contorts with rage. Heat blooms from his direction again and the air fills with the scent of embers and ash.

My eyes go wide in sudden terror. He can hear my thoughts?

The water elemental approaches me, those unfathomable eyes studying me with new intensity. "We all can. And you should not be able to understand us when we speak to one another. We must usually... shout... to be heard by those who haven't yet formed the primal tether."