There’s no point in being a hyper intelligent baby if I couldn’t hide it from every magician I came across. I needed two things to be safe, knowledge and power. I didn’t know what threats intelligent babies faced in this world, and I didn’t have the power to fight them.

Did they get kidnapped?

Do people package them and sell them for ransom one finger at a time?

Would potential rivals take me out of the picture early?

I’m eager to grow, but I’m not stupid. I’m well aware of what could happen to me if it got out that I was smart.

Which is why it was hard to respond to Indra’s proposal to teach me. Being taught how to unlock a skill by a genuine earth magician was tempting. It wasn’t like Indra was a complete stranger, he worked at Zodiac alongside the people my father trusted. His guidance could help me more than anyone else had.

That would mean revealing to him how intelligent I really was. I don’t know how easy it is to unlock skills normally, but I knew I was better than the average baby.

I could always do it by myself.

“Oh, that’s right, you can’t talk.” Indra took a step back. “I am… a little unsure how to proceed here.”

You and me both, buddy.

“What do you mean?” It was my father that responded. “Was there something wrong with what my son was doing?”

My father had only seen the ball exploding in front of him. His hair was covered in liquid stone, and it dripped down onto the wall, disappearing.

Indra kicked at the wall and a new stone ball appeared in his hand. “Your child was manipulating the material of the wall. That’s not a bad thing.”

Indra predicted my father’s worries.

“Normally, we only see that kind of progress when people try to unlock the earth manipulation skill. It’s not rare to see children and even adults trying for years to make even this small amount of progress.”

The stone ball rotated in his hand, and then flew off into the air, performing aerial acrobatics for all to see.

“Your son managed to connect with the stone for a second. He even willed it to move, and it did. That’s what made the wall’s defenses jump in and take over.”

“This is where the problem comes in. You see, many people fall for the trap in believing that they are taking the right path to learning earth manipulation when they move the earth. After all, you’re moving the stone, isn’t that manipulation?” Indra brought the ball back down. It hovered a few centimetres above his robe. “That is a bad mindset. Very bad. If your child continues the way he is, he will never learn the skill.”

Really?

I didn’t like the sound of that. I watched the ball closely, and I tried to find out what I’d been doing wrong. I’d felt like my manipulation was perfect when connecting with the stone.

I saw Indra looking at me.

“Your manipulation skills are sloppy. Weak.” The ball danced through the air around his head. It moved in all directions and took sharp turns. “This isn’t an issue of age. It is an issue of mindset and belief. If you continue then it could turn into a bad habit that lasts for life. Ask yourself, how were you manipulating the stone?”

How? I was doing it the same way anyone would move a stone. I’d set my mind to the task, and it would force them into movement. It was like moving a rock with my hand, except with my mind.

How else would you manipulate something?

Indra continued; his question rhetorical. “You were telling the stone what to do. You imposed your will on it and forced it to bend to your commands.”

I may have been. Who’s to say.

I thought over his words. When I was manipulating earth in the blank space in my mind, I’d forced the mountains to move under my command. Even when I was commanding the stone in real life it was the same.

Except for that one moment, where I’d felt connected to it. I’d moved the ball before then, but the wall had only reacted when I’d felt that connection.

“Earth manipulation is not a command; it is a harmony.” Indra paused. “Here.”

Indra’s ball moved into my lap. “You do not command yourself to breathe. If you see nature as a separate being then you will never realise you are a part of it. To try to command it is to command yourself, and why do that when you could simply move your body. Try to move this stone. Don’t control it, don’t command it, and don’t touch it. Just move it.”

Harmony. I hadn’t thought about it like that. I touched the stone ball and it melted onto my arms. I was afraid to try and manipulate it, given what had happened last time.

“I have given you permission for this tiny section of wall.”

I tried to do what I had done before with the stone. In my mind I pictured the stone moving up, my will imposed on it. It shifted upwards, but there was no connection. It didn’t feel like a limb. It felt like I was trying to lift a very heavy stone ball.

I wasn’t trying to move a separate part of myself. I was trying to move a completely unrelated object. I was doing exactly what Indra said not to do. I sighed and let the ball drop. I would learn nothing if I wasn’t doing it correctly.

I tried not to focus on willing the ball to move. Instead, I returned to that feeling that I had before. The ball was part of me, and I was part of the ball. There was no separation between us. We were one. I wouldn’t push it because there was nothing to be pushed.

This time the stone didn’t move at all.

Trying to push something without pushing is tougher than it sounds, and it already sounds hard. I imagined moving the ball, and then stopped, I was still thinking of the stone as a thing to be moved.

Every time I started to focus on the stone ball, it began to feel like a separate object. Then, when I stopped trying to focus on it, I was disconnected from it. I had to connect to it without connecting to it. It was a paradox.

I was starting to get a headache.

The ball melted onto my lap as I disconnected from it fully. It was just an ordinary liquid stone ball.

I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath, and then let it out. I cleared my mind but this time I didn’t construct the empty space. I was trying to remember the feeling I’d gotten before, that oneness and connection to the stone before it had exploded.

I didn’t need to move it. I didn’t need to do anything with it. I wanted to know it was there. No pressure, no imposition. Another part of my body just like anything else.

Something tapped against my forehead.

The ball was floating in front of me. I knew it was, even with my eyes closed. But I had to confirm it. My doubts scared me, but I forced my eyes to open.

The stone ball was there. No strings pulling at it, no imposition. It simply was, and I was a part of it. It was a part of me.

A crushing weight lifted off my chest. I had regained a limb I had lost, and it felt amazing. I hadn’t realised how much I wanted this connection.

The ball moved around me, and I was aware of its position at all times. After all, it was difficult to not know where your hands and feet were. I brought the ball in front of me and touched it curiously. Patting it felt like I was patting my own head.

[Nature and man. One cannot exist without the other. Yet they remain separate in the minds of many. You have overcome this barrier and taken your first step towards true integration.]

[You have unlocked the skill: Earth manipulation.]

I stared at the messages in the sky. I’d done it. The stone floated around me, not because I willed it, but simply because that’s what I was doing at the time. Just like I didn’t pay attention to my hands while I was talking, or my legs while I was walking, it lazed about in front of me, another limb for my body.

It was a strange sensation.

“Whew. I was worried I was explaining all that to an ordinary baby. I would’ve felt really stupid if I was going that in-depth with someone that couldn’t understand me.” Indra spoke.

I looked at the floating ball and then my eyes went back to him. Oh, crud. I’ve been so swept up in his explanation I forgot to fake being dumb.

“This also confirms my other theory.”

What theory is that? I looked up at him curiously.

“You didn’t have the earth manipulation skill before.” Indra smiled. “When I saw you swallow your own dirt, that wasn’t dirt taken out of the air, it was created. By you. You have the earth creation skill.”

He was talking about the time I tried to breathe out dirt like a dragon. I’d forgotten he was there.

“Don’t worry. You didn’t give yourself away. Jackson asked me to analyse a sample of dirt he’d gotten from your house. Just like he thought, it was one hundred percent dirt and nothing else. I was just confirming what we already knew.”

There was no denying it now. He knew everything. I stayed silent. Not sure what to say. He’d helped me just now, the stone ball floating above my lap.

Did this make him my teacher?

“Now here’s a real problem. You’re too fast. That skill you just learnt should’ve taken years. And that’s assuming you’re grown up.” Indra took back the stone and sections shaved off of it and dropped back into the wall.

A small ball the size of my head remained.

There was less stone, but it didn’t feel like he’d hurt my limb. In fact, I felt like I had the same connection as before. The amount of stone I was controlling didn’t matter.

“Do you want to be taught?” Indra looked me in the eyes.

I nodded. I did.

“Then I will give you your first lesson. Go home for today. Stop gaining skills and focus on solidifying the two you have.” Indra laughed at my expression. “I will teach you when you come back. Does next week sound good to you?” This question was directed at my father. “I can’t do it earlier. I’ll be busy maintaining the defenses while the fight is ongoing.”

We both nodded.

“Then here is my second lesson; do not let the stone fly above you. When you lose control it will drop, and you will get hurt. Or die.”

Lose control?

I was the stone. There was no way I would lose control of it.

I floated it away from me to humour him. We waved goodbye to Indra and started the long walk back home. We journeyed in silence, and my father stopped as our house came into view.

“I've been underestimating you, champ.” His voice was soft. “You’re a genius. I never dreamed it was possible. Not with our background. But this means I shouldn’t be treating you like an ordinary baby.” He looked from side to side and then motioned to the stone ball. I placed it in his hand, and he examined it. “Indra says that you can’t go too fast in magic. I trust him, and it makes sense with what I’ve seen. Too much power gained quickly is dangerous.” He grinned. “There’s no such thing for scribers.”

“The earlier the better, and the more practice you put in the more you’ll get out of it.” He let go of the ball and it floated in the air. “Your grandfather was a scriber, your aunt is a scriber, and trust me, the list is a lot longer than that. I'm going to teach you everything I know if that’s what you want.”

It was.

We went inside the house, and I went straight to bed. My stone floated in the air above me, and I recalled Indra’s warning.

Fine. I would move it away from me. I still didn’t think I could lose control of a limb…

… A loud crack made me shoot up, wide awake. I looked around for the culprit and saw the stone ball on the floor, broken. It had fallen from the air.

A bead of sweat dropped from my forehead.

Good thing I had a teacher.