Elara Thornécroft made the academy floor remember soil.
I had seen magic in Throne of Ruin.
Beautiful things. Horrible things. Efficient murder wearing particle effects. Aiden's Light's Path had treated nature magic as battlefield support with a soft color palette and occasional moral lesson. Roots restrained enemies. Flowers healed small wounds. Trees whispered lore when the protagonist stood in the right place with the right heroine after completing the right side quest.
The game had been wrong in the way maps were wrong.
Useful from a distance.
Embarrassing up close.
Elara knelt in the middle of the lower hall with both palms pressed against cracked marble, hair falling loose from its ribbon, eyes half-lidded like she was listening to a funeral held underground.
The roots around her did not grow like spells.
They answered.
