Sorcerer: Betrayal: Power of Air (Book 4) by D. L. Harrison

She has ambition but won’t
overreach herself, and believes absolutely that I’d never harm anyone without
cause.  She’ll ride my coattails as long as I’ll let her, and never betray me. ”
    Caroline took a moment to think about it before answering, “Outside
of being available, I’m not sure yet.  Technically the coven still reports to
Ceara, except for keeping the secret.  In those cases, you’ll be judge and jury
so…  I also might have a question about the business once in a while, mostly it
will run itself.”
    I smiled, “Don’t worry, I won’t leave you hanging out to
dry.  Maybe we could do this once a week so you can pass on the non-critical
stuff going on?”
    She seemed relieved by that, and we paused again as the food
arrived at the table.  As for me, it never hurt to have more friends and
allies, holding Caroline at arm’s length wouldn’t do me any favors.  Plus, it
would be worth the effort…
     
    My afternoon felt open, so I closed up the office and went
out of the city to somewhere I could be alone, and practiced fire and air,
while meditating.  Zale still hadn’t found us yet, but the more prepared I
could make myself the better off I’d be.  Mostly I stuck with invisibility
while wielding other power, such as real fire, and small twisters that were man
sized.
    I also pushed myself, trying to reach further and expand my
spheres of fire and air access.  I was definitely getting better with
invisibility, but it was hardly second nature yet.  It wasn’t that I thought
I’d use that skill all that much, but it was very complicated and a good way to
train my mind to do many things at once.
    It was as I was moving around, constantly modifying the
light to hide my presence, that an idea hit me, something that Jaben hadn’t
ever considered.  Though, now that I had it seemed kind of obvious.
    Illusions.
    I started by trying to modify the light nearby me in an
attempt to create the illusion of a small flame.  The first result was kind of
laughable, it was completely opaque which made it look wrong, and it didn’t
move like a flame would.  It looked more like a picture of a candle flame, than
a real candle flame.  It was also incredibly difficult, turning invisible
involved twisting light that was already there, bending it around me from every
possible angle so I remained unseen.
    Creating an illusion on the other hand meant controlling
light and changing it into something that wasn’t already there.  It was more
than bending light, it was changing light, modifying the frequency of
what was there and only for the shape I was looking for.  Then just to make it
more difficult, there were many different frequencies in even the smallest
flame.
    The longer I tried and failed, the more I was determined to
make it work.  I was having so much trouble with the little flame, that my
desire to create intricate illusions of people and things seemed more and more
impossible.  But I was stubborn, and it was great practice to improve my
understanding, and channel my element of fire.
    I called bull crap on myself, it had nothing to do with
practice anymore, I was obsessed.  Even if it took me centuries I wouldn’t stop
trying.  I wasn’t sure exactly why, maybe simply because I couldn’t do it yet. 
Most of the things I’ve tried with magic came pretty easy to me, but then I
hadn’t really done much beyond the basics had I?  And this was a challenge.
    I also worked with air, trying to generate sounds, from a
whispered voice, to a shockwave that would splinter a tree.  Ironically, the
latter was very simple, while the subtlety of a whispered voice took a lot of
effort.  Vibrating the air to create sound waves was easy, duplicating the
intricacy of a voice, and language, was something else entirely.
    Destruction, blowing things up, destroying enemies, that was
the easy thing.  Like a toddler hitting things with a hammer.  Perhaps a
toddler of the most powerful supernatural race, and