“You just have to find the focal point,” Jungeun was looking at the sky, “it’s basically the place your magic is centered.” 

Jinsoul didn’t try to hide her frown. “I have no idea what that means.” 

She chuckled. “Neither did I, but it’s only important when you’re getting started.”

“How do you know it’ll be the same here?” she asked. “You were the only one until now, how can you sure I’ll be like you?” The thought bothered her. 

Jungeun shrugged. “The Astra learn better how to use their light once they find it. I only actually controlled it once I found mine.”

“Which is?”

She opened her hand. A piece of moonlight appeared. It formed like a flame did, flickering and fluctuating in intensity. 

When Jinsoul looked back to Jungeun, she gasped. 

Her left eye had turned completely white, while her right eye glittered even more, the red even brighter now. It was almost blinding to look at, as though the light of the moon had been completely focused into one eye. 

“I found it here,” her hand went to the right side of her chest,” and here.” She put a hand to her eye. 

“So an eye,” Jinsoul began, “and your liver.”

“So that’s what’s there?” Jungeun poked it, a strange wonder in her eyes. That wasn’t the usual reaction people had when they found out about what was in a body. 

“You didn’t know?”

“I’m not exactly well versed there,” she shrugged, “but I did sort of know where it was.”

Jinsoul wondered if there was any actual significance to that. Or if it was just something she’d seen in the carnage of past battles. 

“So what am I supposed to do?” she asked. “Look inside myself for inner strength?”

“More or less.” Jungeun nodded. “It might be easier if you’re using your actual magic.” Her eyes flickered to the ground then, almost as if she didn’t want to hold her gaze. “That’s how it was for me, yours might be different.” 

Jinsoul wondered if that was spite in her voice, or just something close to frustration. 

So she looked to the river and drew out a stream of water. She let it pool on the ground beside the fire. 

“Focus on specific parts,” she said. “I know people who have a focal point in their arms, hearts, sometimes even their throats.”

“And what happens if they lose the limbs attached to that point?” Jinsoul asked. She knew very well that it was a morbid question. 

And as was expected, Jungeun didn’t seem bothered. “It changes around,” she replied, meeting her eyes. “If I lost my eye, it’d probably go to my liver, or somewhere else.” Her two-coloured eyes went to her hands then. Why was she looking away again?

Jinsoul closed her eyes. She focused on them first, but felt nothing. Then she went to . Nothing. 

It went on. She tried to push her mind, just as she had when she’d first learned her magic. It was a distant memory now, but she knew it had taken months to lift any amount larger than her hand. 

But when she looked at her knees, she also found nothing. 

Jungeun had been silent the entire time. She’d barely moved. Jinsoul had expected her to be a bit more restless. 

“It’s not working.” Jinsoul opened her eyes. 

Jungeun was looking at something else, her eyes wide. She was being illuminated by a gentle light. Mixed with the fire, Jungeun looked both ethereal. Her skin accepted the glow, while her eyes burned like a soaring fire. 

“You’ve got more light than I’d expected,” Jungeun murmured. 

Jinsoul tore her eyes away from her and her jaw fell slack. 

The water had collected in a neat circle atop the ground. It was alive with the light, brighter than even the moon. Jinsoul was amazed she hadn’t seen it sooner .

“But I didn’t find what you were talking about.” She let her fingers trace across the surface. It was warm to the touch. When her hand went a bit deeper, she felt a slow rush of energy. Her frustration from before faded. She was torn between enjoying the feeling and wanting to resist. “My eye isn’t glowing, right?”

Red eyes lifted to hers. Jinsoul felt a slight warmth in her eye then. Her left one. 

Jungeun let out a small breath. “A little.” She waved a hand. Her eye turned white again. In the space between them was a thin white crescent. It fell to the circle of water, settling right at the bottom of it. “Looks a lot like that.”

“So it’s because I’m just subconsciously controlling it?” Jinsoul just knew about people’s magic being triggered by their emotions. “They’re tied together, but I can only really control it once I find the place the light’s the strongest?” She was getting technical again. 

She nodded, actually seeming engaged with what she was talking about. “Did this happen before?” she asked. “I didn’t notice for a while. We all thought I’d just made the fire brighter in some places.”

“It always got into the water,” Jinsoul replied. “I wasn’t paying attention when it happened.”

“Like here,” Jungeun said. “You stopped thinking about the water. Then the light came.” 

“But it’s more than normal.” She looked at the circle. “Is it because you’re here?”

Her brow rose. “Me?”

“Another Astra,” she said. “If I’m near water, I’m stronger. If you’re around fire, I’d think you’d be too.” She waved at her. “You’re as close as it gets to the moon, maybe that has an effect on my magic.”

Jungeun looked at her for a long moment. “Did you try your head?”

“Yeah,” she said. “Even focused really hard on this eye.” She pointed to her left eye. “Nothing.”

“I mean here,” Jungeun pointed at the top of her head, “your brain.” 

Jinsoul looked away this time. Then she concentrated on what lay behind her eyes. The mortals hadn’t made much headway with that organ. Jinsoul barely understood it. Not even mindreader could. 

A slow-moving calm came over her. It wasn’t like the giddiness or restlessness she’d already felt. It also wasn’t coupled with relief or a sense of being too calm. She was just focused on what was happening. She could feel a warmth stretching from her head to her eyes. It drifted down to her heart. 

For once, the moonlight felt good. 

Jungeun hadn’t said anything. When Jinsoul looked over, she saw that had fallen into a small ‘o’. She was also glowing brighter than normal, especially the space around her liver. 

Jinsoul blinked and that glow was gone. “It worked?” She felt completely at ease, rejuvenated too. As if she’d just dived straight into a lake. 

“Yeah,” she said. “Look at yourself.”

So she did. Her skin was a beacon. All of it glowed. The light had warmed her, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. 

“Moonlight’ll start to feel different now,” Jungeun told her. “Probably won’t feel all that off for you.”

Jinsoul frowned. “It never felt wrong, just strange.”

She shrugged. “I guess you could put it that way.”

“How’d it feel?” She knew she was furthering this conversation, maybe even leaning into something that’d humanise the fire elf. 

“It hurt,” Jungeun replied. “I got sick every time it crept into my magic. I also started getting these really vivid dreams.”

“About?” Jinsoul had a growing suspicion about what the reason was. 

“Battles,” she said. “Either about what happened or something,” she paused, “else.”

Jinsoul snorted. “I think there’s an obvious reason for that.”

Red eyes flicked to hers. They weren’t surprised. There wasn’t much of a reaction there. It meant she was hiding it. 

For a moment, Jinsoul thought she’d overstepped. She still wondered if that mattered. She didn’t feel as if Jungeun was the type of person to lash out. She’d seen people with shorter tempers. And she was surprised that Jungeun hadn’t yet shown something close to that. 

“You’re right,” Jungeun said then. “The moon doesn’t mix well with too much darkness.” She paused, looking down at her lap before looking back at her. “I’m guessing not so much fed into that for you.”

The implication of that hung into the air. Jungeun was looking at her as if she was expecting something. Did she expect her to say it aloud? 

Jinsoul didn’t reply. She looked away instead. Jungeun hadn’t jumped to defend herself. She’d admitted that the moonlight hadn’t taken to her well, most likely because of her past—the life she’d led. 

But that didn’t mean anything more than that. It just meant that Jungeun was aware of how terrible her actions were. If she hadn’t been aware of that, then Jinsoul would’ve immediately left for the sea, consequences of not joining the Astra be damned. 

The fire elf didn’t say anything after that. A small fire hovered in the air between them. In the chill of the night, the warmth easily reached Jinsoul. The flames had strengthened. 

“I don’t need that,” she said, looking at it. She didn’t want to think of how often that magic had been used against someone. 

The flames vanished. Something cracked in Jungeun’s expression, but it vanished soon after. 

“If you’re cold, try drawing on the light.” Jungeun laid down, arms folded behind her head. 

“You don’t need a fire?” Anyone whose magic was ice was sensitive to heat. The opposite was true for those with fire. 

Jungeun only chuckled. “I’m always warm.” Then she closed her eyes. “Good day—night.”

Jinsoul didn’t say anything. She looked instead to the moon. The reason she was here. The reason Jungeun was also here. 

She closed her eyes as well. It felt like a cruel joke. If the moon was an actual being, then it had to be a cruel joke. 

She lay there for what felt like hours. She couldn’t find the will to sleep. She only listened to the world around her. The chill of the night was actually starting to get to her. 

Then she heard Jungeun move. She hadn’t been before. 

Jinsoul opened one eye. 

Jungeun had sat up, skin glowing ever so slightly. She glanced at Jinsoul before looking around the forest. In her hands, a length of moonlight appeared. Her eye started to glow as well, but not as strong as before. 

For a moment, Jinsoul felt scared. Was this why they hadn’t travelled through the earth?

Then she watched as Jungeun relaxed into a sitting position, still looking around. She was keeping watch. 

Then a fire came to life in the air again, but small. It rippled gently in the air, but burned as smoothly as a candle. It chased the cold away. 

She let herself relax. Despite the fire elf’s past, she was safe to be around. At least so far. 

Either way, Jinsoul would have to let herself sleep at least. 

And she managed it too, but her dreams didn’t let her rest. She saw the moon. She watched it be overcome by red, leaving only a sliver of white. She was surrounded by fire. It came closer to her, its warmth growing. 

But it never burned.