Escaping Chains

[Sterling]

Ever since she had been found at Kallisti her parents had tethered her to her room.  She was grounded, her wallet gone, her access to the internet vanished. She had nothing but school.  Risha was mad at her for leaving her out of it. Sterling couldn't even apologize in school.  So there it stayed with her best friend.

There was no escaping the chains her parents had placed on her.  Except...

Her parents had gone to work.  They expected her to go to class on her own, and she did.  She walked out the door with every intention of going to school.  But she walked and then missed her turn. It was on accident, at least that's what she told herself.

Sterling had never skipped classes before.  It left a tight knot in her stomach but Sterling kept walking.

Sterling walked until she saw the river.  And then she walked along the river and wondered what else she might do with the power.  Julianna hadn't given her much instruction, and she had left before she could learn more.  She could go to Kallisti again, but maybe she could learn on her own.

Sterling stuck her legs over a pier on the river and swung her legs.  She closed her eyes and let the sunshine upon her -- figuratively and physically.  She felt warmth envelop her and she looked out over the river and saw the world a little crisper.  The air smelled a little fouler and the breeze upon her skin was soft like a feather. It was wonderful...

[Sterling]

The power drifted inside of her begging to be used. She had never done anything purposeful with it. She really had only a limited grasp on the utility of it. Her cousin liked to blow things up -- he was far more skilled and unable to teach her, not that she wanted to learn how to fight with the power inside. No it had to have other uses. It was more than fancy effect like Juliana used. Was there anything else you could do with it?

The Ascendancy had created a monument from a building using the power -- or so rumors said. Sterling didn't know if that was the truth, but it had magically appeared. Start off simple, she thought to herself. A ball of water...

It was simple enough, pulling the blue threads into existence and taking water to form a ball. It floated just above the waters surface, and Sterling wondered what good it was with only five elements and one had no tangible reality to it and not clear name. But she clearly saw the five colors while making the simple ball of water. Curiosity killed the cat -- she wondered what would happen if she added other elements to her simple ball of water...