ZARA'S POV
(FIVE WEEKS INTO TRAINING)
I was dying.
Not literally. Not yet. But every day with Morrigan felt like dying. She pushed me into chaos storms for hours, forced me to touch everything until reality screamed, made me find the calm center that lasted three seconds before dissolving.
Three seconds. After five weeks, still only three seconds.
"Again," Morrigan commanded.
We stood in the sealed training chamber. The walls pulsed with protective wards—necessary because my chaos had already destroyed three regular rooms.
I touched the practice dummy. It turned to water, then fire, then butterflies, then nothing. Standard chaos sequence.
"Not good enough," Morrigan said. "You're reacting to the chaos. Not directing it."
"I can't direct chaos. That's the whole problem!"
