The Thaw

Flora told Tecna about the scheduled get-together with the Trix as soon as she returned to their room. Tecna was less than enthusiastic about the prospect but determined to see it through. Stella found out the next morning and threw a very predictable fit about being the last to know. Bloom and the others had to remind Stella that the purpose of their excursion would be to reach out to the Trix, not compete against them.

For Layla the rest of the week seemed to pass by in a blur while at the same time dragging on interminably. More than once during the week she caught herself zoning out in the middle of a class, thinking about Icy, what she would say to her, what she should wear, how she could keep everyone civil with each other, rather than paying attention to the lesson. This became a problem for her on Wednesday during her Elemental Attunement class with Professor Avalon. She was attempting to manipulate her Morphix into behaving like fire and lost focus partway through the exercise, thinking about how badly things could go wrong on Friday night. Her control over her Morphix slipped and the resulting minor explosion knocked her back on her ass. Professor Avalon walked over to lend her a hand getting back up.

"Are you alright Layla?"

Layla rubbed her sore buns as she rose to her feet.

"Nothing hurt worse than my pride."

Avalon gave her a mild frown.

"Fire is the most volatile of elements to work with Layla. It can be very destructive if it gets out of control. You need to remain focused when working with it, even in simulation."

The water fairy lowered her eyes in embarrassment.

"Yes sir. Sorry professor."

The winged man gave her a measuring stare.

"Is there something on your mind Layla? Something you'd like to talk about?"

Layla looked up at him, her eyes marginally wider than usual as she shook her head.

"No sir. Nothing at all."

Avalon gave a "Hmm..." as he considered her response for a moment before nodding as though having decided something.

"Fire and water are diametrically opposed elements. Perhaps you're not quite up to the challenge yet. We could take a different tactic, strengthening your affinity for the other three elements first before coming back to fire again. Perhaps that would give you a chance to work through whatever is blocking you right now."

Taking a moment to glance around and make sure that the other students were doing well with their own exercises, he looked back at Layla again with a mildly expectant look.

"So then Layla, is there a particular element you might like to work with next?"

Layla thought about that for a moment.

"Well, what about ice? Is that an element?"

Professor Avalon clasped his arms behind his back and rocked forward on the balls of his feet.

"Ice? Well, technically that is not one of the four classical elements. It is in fact what we call a pseudo-element, in that it acts like an element when in reality it is not. Ice magic is actually a subset of water magic that most water elementalists never bother to delve into. Similarly most ice elementalists never bother themselves overly much about learning water magic. The two mindsets are generally not readily compatible. You would have to learn to use your natural element in a way which will feel counter-intuitive and unnatural to you."

*Like dealing with an Ice Witch!* the water fairy thought to herself.

"I wanna learn that. Can you teach me about ice magic?"

The paladin unclasped his arms and nodded.

"I did spend a good bit of time teaching in the realm of Frost before coming here. I should like to think I picked up a thing or two about ice that I can teach you. Are you certain that this is the way you want to go though? In its own way, learning about ice magic may prove as challenging for you as learning fire magic."

Layla nodded her head firmly.

"I wanna do this. I know I can handle it."

Avalon gave her a curious stare, then simply nodded.

"Very well then. Ice it is. Prepare yourself Layla. It's time for you to unlearn everything you think you know about water and learn to see it in an entirely new light."