Arkas observed for a long moment, then finally spoke.
"Looks good. But you have got something wrong. Now listen carefully."
"Essence is the ocean. The elements are rivers flowing from it. Most people are born beside a river, dipping their hands into its waters. But you… you stand in the ocean.
You don't just use fire, water, or wind like the others. You hold the trunk of the tree that is Essence. Everyone else is stuck using branches."
He gestured to the fireball in my hand.
"That? That's just one color pulled from the full spectrum. Fire is red. But Essence, Essence is white light. It holds all of it. Every frequency. Every possibility."
He looked at me then, serious.
"Most can't touch Essence directly. It's too chaotic. Too vast. Their minds can't handle the raw input. So they develop affinities, get assigned classes, use templates that filter the Essence for them. They think they're using fire. They're not. They're using filtered Essence pretending to be fire."
