“Yes, but …” Aaron bit at a fingernail. “I did it without a counterweight.”
“No, you didn’t. Call was there.”
“It’s true,” Tamara said. “Call was practically holding you down.”
“You may have used his magic instinctively,” said Rufus. “The counterweight of chaos is a human being because the counterweight of the void is the soul. When you use chaos magic, you seek a human soul to balance you. Without a counterweight, you can easily use up your own magic and die.”
“That sounds … bad,” Aaron said. He moved into the center of the room, and after a second, Call joined him. They stood awkwardly, shoulder to shoulder. “But I don’t want to hurt Call.”
“You won’t.” Master Rufus strode to the corner of the grotto and returned carrying a cage. In the cage was an elemental — a lizard with curved spines running along its back. Its eyes were bright gold.
“Warren?” Call said.
Master Rufus set the cage on the ground. “You will make this elemental disappear. Send it into the realm of chaos.”
“But it’s Warren,” Call objected. “We know that lizard.”
“Yeah, I’m really not sure I want to do … that,” said Aaron. “Can’t I disappear a rock or something?”
“I’d like to see you work with something more substantial than that,” said Rufus.
“Warren does not want to be disappeared,” said the lizard. “Warren has important things to tell you.”
“Hear that? He’s got important things to tell us,” said Aaron.
“He’s also a liar,” pointed out Tamara.
“Well, you’d know all about being a liar, wouldn’t you?” Call snapped.
Tamara’s cheeks pinked but she ignored him. “Remember when Warren took us to the wrong cave and the Devoured almost killed us?”
Aaron cut his eyes sideways toward Call. “I don’t want to do it,” he whispered.
“You can’t,” Call muttered under his breath.
“I have to do something.” Aaron sounded slightly panicked.
“Disappear the cage,” Call replied, keeping his voice to a near whisper.
“What?”
“You heard me.” Call grabbed Aaron’s arm. “Do it.”
Master Rufus’s eyes narrowed. “Call —”
Aaron’s hand shot out. A dark tendril uncoiled in his palm, then exploded outward, surrounding the cage, hiding Warren from sight. Call felt a slight pull inside himself, as if there were a rubber band inside his rib cage and Aaron was twanging it. Was that what it meant to be a counterweight?
The smoke began to clear. Call dropped his hand, just in time to see Warren’s tail disappear through a crack in the grotto wall. The cage was gone, the space where it had stood empty.
Rufus raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t mean for you to send the cage into chaos as well, but — good job.”
Tamara was staring at the place where Warren’s cage had disappeared. Under other circumstances, Call would have shot her a reassuring look, but not now. “What’s the limit to Aaron’s power?” she asked suddenly. “Like, what can he do? Could he send the whole Magisterium into the void?”
Master Rufus turned toward her, bushy eyebrows drawing together in surprise. “There are three things that make mages great. One is their fine control, another is their imagination, and the third is their well of power. One of our challenges is to discover the answer to your question. What can Aaron do before he needs his counterweight to pull him back? What can Call do? What can you do? There is only one way to find out — practice. Now, let’s try working with earth.”