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the other elements. Taking this power, Tan shaped it atop the draasin.
    Spirit held in place.
    Tan reached to the nymid. Nymid!
    The great water elemental infused the bones of Ethea, worked deep beneath the city in greater strength than Tan would have thought possible. He didn’t have the same connection to the nymid as he had with Asboel, but he was better connected than with any of the other elementals. As far as Tan knew, there were individual nymid, but he didn’t only speak to the same one each time, not like he did with Asboel.
    He Who is Tan .
    Tan let out a tense breath. Everything he intended depended on him reaching the nymid. Standing in the palace courtyard, he hadn’t been certain that the nymid would respond.
    He gathered his thoughts. With the nymid, it was best to be direct. Twisted Fire. Can it be healed?
    Why would you heal Twisted Fire?
    I would restore him if it’s possible.
    Twisted Fire consumes the shaper.
    It once consumed me.
    You were not so far gone that you could not still feel.
    Is that the key? Tan asked.
    The nymid didn’t answer.
    Tan took a deep breath. Will you help?
    There was more of a sense of great thought. Then, We can try.
    Something about what the nymid said tripped an idea for Tan. They were right: when he’d been consumed by fire, he still had felt something. The bond with Amia had been there, but weakened. She had held onto him; her affection for him had preserved him. And because of that, he had risked failing in order to return.
    Pulling on the focus with spirit, Tan surged through the lisincend. There had to be something—anything—that he could reach that might allow him to save the person he had once been. Spirit was difficult for Tan. He found nothing within the lisincend other than the draw of fire and a vague sense of fear. Nothing that would allow him to reach who he had been.
    Nymid?
    The nymid pressed up through the ground, drawn up by Tan’s command. They moved hesitantly, sliding over the lisincend. Power rushed through Tan, power to shape and control the water, power to heal.
    He pushed this through the lisincend.
    The creature howled. Pain surged through the spirit connection Tan now shared with him. Fire beat at the connection, straining for freedom. Tan and the nymid fought back, resisting. All he needed was an opening, something to reach through. But he found none.
    Nymid pressed, sensing Tan’s need. The sense of the elemental roared through him, filling him with an awareness of their power. Combined with spirit, Tan knew he could save the lisincend, that he could shape the creature back into the man he had been.
    The lisincend howled again.
    Stone groaned as the lisincend strained at the chains binding it. Fire consumed the lisincend, as it had once consumed Tan, coursing through the creature with an intensity he couldn’t match.
    The spirit barrier failed.
    In a moment, the lisincend would be free to attack. Those watching might be injured, all because he had been arrogant enough to believe he could save this creature. Amia was in danger.
    Fire surged, roaring from the lisincend.
    Someone screamed behind him. Tan felt Amia’s alarm. He would not risk her.
    Asboel!
    The sense of the draasin roared through him. Asboel was always nearby in his mind but could slither quickly to the forefront.
    Twisted Fire!
    You are a fool, Maelen.
    As Asboel spoke, the surge of power roared through him, the great fire elemental pushing on the fire consuming the lisincend. Asboel had not the strength to draw it away, but he could augment it.
    In that moment, Tan knew what he had to do.
    Pulling on water and air, he created a barrier around the lisincend as flames consumed the creature. A surge of joy raced through the lisincend as fire consumed him, drawing the flames out of the barrier, pulling more fire than he would have shaped on his own. Dark laughter worked through Tan’s mind from the spirit connection.
    Then it immolated. Flames burned to nothing, overwhelmed by