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but no more so than any of the other elements. Without wind, there would be no breath. Without water, there would be no blood. Without earth, there would be no sustenance. And spirit—spirit fused everything together, weaving throughout everything that could be done. Spirit might be the most essential of the elements, the most pure, but also the most elusive.
    Tan drew Seanan’s shaping away, pulling it toward saa. The elemental accepted it readily. Once, Tan might have tried drawing the shaping into himself, but he’d learned what happened when he did that, the way that fire would consume, would change the shaper, twisting the connection he had to the fire bond. There was no control when fire burned like that.
    Seanan turned to him sharply. “What did you do?”
    Tan sniffed. “I ask you what you can sense of fire and you show me a shaping. You might be a skilled shaper, Seanan, but do you know fire?”
    Seanan waved his hand again. This time, the air sizzled with a whip-thin streamer of fire. Saa was drawn to it, compelled toward the fire. Seanan held the shaping, forming shapes in the air. His hand glowed with the strength of his actions.
    Once, Tan might have been impressed by such a display of control. There was no doubting Seanan’s skill. Perhaps he would have been able to teach Tan about fire when he first learned, rather than asking Cianna. That might have avoided some of Amia’s irritation. But now, Tan understood fire in a way that was different from Seanan, an understanding that came not only from working with the draasin, but also from studying the other elementals, struggling to know how to reach them, to learn how they were all connected. More than anything, that was what Tan had learned.
    Fire remained easiest for him. He understood it, could see the way Seanan pulled on his shaping, the simple and almost casual way that he dragged the shaping from within him. But it had consequences. Not only was saa drawn to it, but it connected to the rest of fire, joining with it. Had Tan reached through the fire bond, he suspected that he could see it.
    With a flash of shaping, Tan extinguished Seanan’s, sending it again to saa. The elemental accepted the fire easily and danced within the hearth, enjoying the gift. The swirling shapes from saa seemed to form shapes, and they combined with something like murmuring in the back of Tan’s mind. Had he focused, he thought he might finally be able to understand saa.
    Another time. For now, he had to focus on Seanan.
    The fire shaper stared at him, his eyes flashing with irritation that bordered on anger. Tan shaped him with spirit, layering the gentlest touch that he could upon the shaper’s mind. He didn’t want to alienate Seanan, only help him to see how much more there was to know about fire than what he understood. It had taken bonding to the draasin, to nearly losing Asgar, for Tan to begin to understand. He might not have the same knowledge that Asboel managed, but he remained open to learning.
    “Seanan,” Tan said, letting the words coming out as soothingly as possible. “You came to me. I can see that you’re skilled. You have much talent with shaping, but fire is about more than simply shaping. There is power to be had, yes, but it requires understanding and submission and control. You have the control, but can you strive for understanding?”
    Tan didn’t push for the submission part. Few understood how you had to trust that fire would not burn through you when shaped. Tan still wasn’t sure that he fully understood, only that he no longer feared Asboel’s flames or those of another shaper. They would not harm him, because fire would not harm him.
    The fire shaper pursed his lips and turned back toward the hearth. He breathed silently for a while, his shaping simmering beneath the surface, so similar to what Cianna did. At least with her, Tan recognized that her shaping was done because she enjoyed the touch of fire; she wanted to mingle with it.