Ash started to walk towards the Tethrys.
The hall was absolutely silent. He could feel everybody's eyes watching his approach to the small table, watching as he raised both his hands, placed his palms on one of the triangles of the crystal.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then, the crystal started glowing.
Inside the pyramid, something stirred. The energy, glowing under its translucent shell, spun in fast circles, like something waking up.
The light grew in intensity really fast, reaching its peak during only a few seconds. Then, the colour settled.
It was orange.
The whole Tethrys started glowing a bright orange shade, spreading its light in all directions and bathing everything nearby in a warm glow.
The previously colourless and transparent crystal was now a bright orange object, filled with energy that was continuously spinning around.
Ash just stood there and watched.
He expected to see fire. It did not come as a surprise. He had been making small fires in his room for two years already. And fire magic was one of the most powerful affinities.
It was Flamir's elemental affinity. It allowed people to become full-fledged Raiders, having only mastered the fire alone.
That was not his problem.
The young man just stood there and waited for another thing to happen.
Slowly, something started to take shape over the pyramid. It was neither smoke nor light. Something between the two formed in the air, forming a pattern that was familiar to Ash.
It was the symbol of the fire.
Ash stared at it.
His heart clenched tightly. No, his heart was not beating faster – more like the reverse of that. Like something wrapped around it and squeezed tightly, pressing into it from outside.
He knew what would happen next.
But he waited.
The Tethrys was not done yet. An element was one thing; but the second thing in the process of discovering an affinity was a number - an affinity quotient. That was the measure of how powerful your affinity could be.
High number - high potential.
Low number - low potential.
And it stayed low.
Nobody liked talking about the fact that you reached a ceiling that could not be surpassed by any amount of training or reading extra books.
The result of the Tethrys was the final thing, the absolute truth on a matter. There was no other truth anywhere else.
Something else started forming over the Tethrys pyramid.
Ash focused his attention on it and did not move an inch.
Again, the formation took a while, taking shape in the same orange glow of the fire symbol. A number, appearing slowly in the air...
3.2
He stared at it.
It took a second for everything to drain out of him. Like something had entered him and taken something away. He looked at the number in the air and could not do anything else.
He looked at it and froze and there was only one thought forming in his head, barely reaching his consciousness – a weak 'no'.
In front of him, the hall erupted.
Not loudly. Quietly. Not as a reaction to something exciting. But rather like the quiet conversations that are held in such situations; a murmur that started to fill the room when people started speaking in low voices, saying something that should not be said aloud.
He could not understand what they were whispering to each other. But he could perfectly imagine it.
He had imagined this moment for quite a long time and tried to convince himself that his affinity would not turn out to be too bad.
3.2
Ash slowly turned his head to the left.
His father, standing behind the table, still looked at the number. Ash could clearly see his expression and recognize the horror that appeared on his father's face as a reaction to the result of the Tethrys.
He turned back and looked at the crystal.
Ash knew much more about affinity numbers than most of the people in this room. He had studied it carefully in the library.
Affinity quotient was not a measurement of how good you currently were. It was a measurement of the ceiling; the maximum that you could possibly reach with your magic.
It was a final and unbreakable ceiling, set in advance and could not be changed no matter how much you practiced.
This 3.2 meant one thing – no matter how many days and nights he spent practicing fire magic, there was an absolute limit to it. It had been set in advance.
Once he reached it, he could not improve his magic anymore because the potential of his affinity had been defined in advance.
There would be no super strong main character out of him.
He knew that. He even said it to himself once in the library, when he was practicing making a fireball.
Knowing and seeing a confirmation of this fact, appearing in the air in front of everyone's eyes, were two very different things.
He just kept his hands on the Tethrys and looked at the number.
3.2