He groggily opens his eyes. He looks around himself while lying flat on his back. Where am I again?

  He gasps and bolts upright. Everything comes flooding back. He doesn’t hyperventilate or panic, but it still takes a second for him to settle his nerves and his fear.

  Once he’s under control again, re-accepting the situation he’s in and the truth that is his life now, he get’s out of bed. He walks to and opens the bedroom door and walks out into main living space of the cabin. Amos is sitting at the table sipping on a mug of water.

  “Good, you’re up.”

  “How long was I out?”

  “16 hours.”

  “16 hours?! …dang. Guess I needed it.”

  “Don’t worry. As time goes on you’ll need less and less sleep, and eventually you won’t even have to eat or drink unless you want to. Which I recommend. It’s a good idea to do those every day things. It helps ground you and maintain your humanity.” Will is stunned for a second at the causally made statement. He guesses he should be used to causally made statements filled with massive ramifications by now, but he isn’t. “But that’s something for much later. For now we’ll be testing your body’s natural attunement. Follow me.”

  Will couldn’t help but get excited. What kid doesn’t day dream about having super powers?

  Amos leads Will outside to a table made of solid dark grey metal. On the table is a burning candle, a mug of water, an ordinary looking rock, and a fan. Like one of the you would see a woman holding to hide her face in old movies.

  “Now.” Amos says. “I want you to circulate the Qi in your body. Not like before when you’re cultivating. Just move the Qi out of your center, out into all your Qi channels, and then back. Also I should mention, this is also what to do when activating techniques.”

  Will pays close attention and does as Amos says.

  “Now, while doing that, I want you to go to each item. You’re to walk up and in whichever order you choose you are to pass your hand through the flame, submerge your hand in the water, grip the rock tightly in your hand, and wave the fan with one hand at the other. There being a reaction will signify an attunement or resonance. The degree or type of reaction will indicate the strength of that attunement.”

  Will nodded and nervously looked at the items on the table. Taking a deep breath, he tries to confidently walk up to the table. He’s not sure he succeeds. He makes sure his Qi rotation hasn’t stuttered or stopped and then passes his hand through the flame.

  ….Nothing. He tries again and then once more. Nothing.

  I really wanted to shoot fireballs out of my hand..

  “Hm. I had assumed your attunement would be fire.” Amos looks over and sees the disappointed look writ all over Will’s face. “Don’t worry about it kid. Every element can be powerful with enough resonance or skill or both. I’ve seen cultivators with very weak resonance with their element use it in ingenious ways that allowed them to be incredibly strong.”

  “I guess…”

  “Continue on.”

  Will obeys and moves on to the mug. He keeps his Qi cycling throughout his body and then dunks his hand into the water.

  Again nothing.

  Will huffs to himself and quickly moves on.

  He grips the rock.

  Nothing.

  He takes the fan in one hand and waves it.

  Nothing again?!

  “Sir. What does this mean?”

  Amos hums to himself. “Unusual. But nothing to worry about.”

  “How is this nothing to worry about?!” Immediately Will winces. “Sorry sir. Please, how is this not a problem?”

  Amos stares at Will for a few tense seconds. Well, tense for Will. Letting him know the outburst wasn’t appreciated and won’t be tolerated.

  Amos continues. “It is nothing to worry about because there are more elements than just the main four. There are several other sub elements. Having an attunement for one of the major four elements is only slightly more common than having an attunement for one of the many sub elements. Also, one can have an attunement for one of the main elements and then years later develop control for a sub element.”

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  “Is that what happened with you sir? Earth to metal?”

  Amos smiles slightly. “Exactly.” Will smiles.

  “Are sub elements weaker than the main ones?”

  “Not necessarily. They’re just more focused. Some would argue less versatile. To those, l say they’re just unimaginative.”

  “So what other ones can we try?”

  “I have some samples of a few others lying around. Stay here while I go get them.”

  Amos leaves and walks into the cabin. Twenty minutes later he comes back with a small metal box filled with materials.

  Will went through metal, sand, glass, ice, mist, darkness, light, blood, poison, gravity, force, and even space and time. None of them reacted at all.

  Each time one of the elements failed to react to him, the farther his heart fell.

  “Sir…is..is it possible to not be attuned to any element?”

  A slight frown is on Amos’s face. “It’s possible. Just exceedingly rare.” Amos hums to himself again. “I’m going to be blunt with you Will. This doesn’t make sense. Ezra would not send you to me if he didn’t sense something in you. Some form of potential. It’s for this reason that I believe that you do have an attunement. We just haven’t found it yet.”

  Amos puts his hand to his chin and begins pacing as he thinks to himself. “Hmm. We covered basically everything. There are some slightly esoteric sub elements we have not attempted yet but I don’t think that’s it.”

  Amos stops pacing and glances inquisitively at Will. “Maybe…”

  “Maybe what sir?”

  “The elements we’ve attempted so far have gone from common to excessively rare. Time being chief among them. There are other ones that exist in theory but have never had a confirmed case. And then there’s one last one. Despite its commonality in nature its attunement is very rare. There’s only two other confirmed cultivators who possess this attunement right now. And over the last 10,000 years, only four more have had it.” Amos looks at Will for a moment more and then makes his decision. “Let’s try it.”

  Amos walks back into the cabin and back out 10 minutes later. In his hands is a contraption about a foot and a half tall. It has a square wooden base, a slender metal cylindrical tower with a small metal ball on top. Will recognizes it immediately. “Is that a Tesla Coil?”

  Amos looks at Will quizzically. “A what?”

  “A Tesla Coil. We learned about it in school last year. It’s supposed to be able to generate arcs of electricity.”

  “I’m not sure of its name, but that’s exactly what it does. It’s a little odd that you know that. This is quite literally a one of a kind object. About 140 years ago a cultivator of particular skill but not much combat strength developed this little thing. He had the lightning attribute and was able to do amazing things with it. In fact some common equipment and technology that we have today is because of him.”

  Will couldn’t believe his ears. It couldn’t be..could it?

  “Sir, if I may ask, what did this man look like?”

  “I only met him the once. But from what I recall, he was very skinny, almost sickly so, and had brown hair and a very prominent and large nose. And before you ask, I have no idea what happened to him. From what I heard he just disappeared one day. Which is quite amazing considering the strength of those who looked for him. Now. Let’s get to this.”

  Amos sets the machine down on the table. “When you are ready, flip the switch at the base. When you do an arc of lightning will reach out and strike you.”

  Will nods his understanding, putting aside the mystery of the lightning cultivator who disappeared and focuses on the task at hand.

  While Will makes sure to start cycling his Qi, Amos takes several steps back so he does not interfere and draw any arcs to himself instead of Will.

  Will takes a deep breath and flips the switch.

  Immediately a few small arcs of lightning cover the small ball. After a couple seconds, a much bigger arc connects itself to Will.

  At first all Will feels is a slight tingle. And then a pleasant warmth starts to flow through him. But then something changes.

  “…Somethings wrong.”

  “What do you mean? Will?”

  Will can’t explain what he’s feeling. At first it was just a tingle, a little bit of warmth and a slight vibration. Now though…

  He could feel the lightning coursing through his veins. Both his biological veins and the ephemeral veins that his Qi flow through. It courses through every vein, every artery, every capillary. Lightning starts arcing out of every pore of his body, blood starts to flow from a million tiny wounds that open up all over his body.

  The energy in his body keeps increasing. The lightning’s power sky rocketing with every second that passes.

  Will’s body goes rigid. His back arcs and he looks skyward as he tries to control the power rampaging through him.

  A small part of his mind barely notices that there are now clouds above him. What was just a few minutes ago a bright, clear sky, is now one filled with brutal pitch black angry clouds.

  …

  Amos looks on with wide eyes. The boy is suspended a few inches from the ground, body locked in a rigid arch. Lightning violently arcing off him, the force of which is sending hurricane force winds blasting away from him, blood coating all of his exposed skin.

  Does Amos dare stop this?

  The boy’s reaction to the lightning is immense. But also incredibly volatile.

  Does he dare not stop it? If he survives…this mere boy could be a monster.

  …

  The lightning coursing through him keeps rising. Every time he thinks it can’t possibly go higher, it notches up once again. Will can feel parts of his skin and muscle begin to singe and burn away. He can feel his organs starting to do the same. Finally, he feels it reaching a crescendo.

  A scream the likes of which Will has never uttered before breaks out of his mouth. It comes from deep inside him, from the very bottom of his lungs. It cracks the atmosphere around him. All his pain, all his energy, all his desperation, every ounce of him that craves to never be tormented again breaks away from his very soul and out into the air. Released and amplified by the torrent of energy rampaging inside him.

  Right as his scream rips into the air, a massive lightning bolt, a pillar of pure blue light and destruction 30 feet wide slams down from the black as pitch clouds and onto and into Will.