The elves could barely breathe as they watched. The mana around him pulsed in alternating rhythms, one like a heartbeat, the other like a storm. The effect was mesmerizing. The leaves bent toward him as though caught in invisible wind.
Thalan whispered, awed, "That… breaks every law of resonance."
Lindarion nodded faintly. "Because laws are born of limitation."
He exhaled, and the two energies merged into one clear wave that rippled outward across the glade. Every soldier felt it. Their mana threads quivered, not in rejection, but in response.
Several elves gasped as their own energies stabilized, the usual resistance between elemental affinities suddenly softening. Fire attuned with water, earth with wind. Even the air tasted different, metallic, alive.
Ashwing watched from above, his tone quieter now. 'That's new.'
'It's the World Tree,' Lindarion replied in his mind. 'It doesn't resist me anymore. It listens.'
'Or maybe it's testing you.'
'Maybe both.'
