Lucio backed away slightly, nervously, and held out his hand – the bars flared brightly. Stavro moved up to stand beside him. I knelt beside the bench and laid my hand on the earth.

The dirt Pater lay upon was ancient, rich… give it sunlight and water, and it would grow anything. Give it darkness and pressure, it would become rock again. Give it motivation, will… as I shaped enchantment, I reached down, into the Earth, feeling the heat of the core. Some of that heat I took into myself, and I knew my eyes would blaze when they opened. Some of it I channeled into Pater’s battered form, knitting bone and clearing clot. Some of it went into Sylvia, and I heard her gasp slightly as her hair started to stand on end.

“What are you doing, Martin?” Lucio called. He tried to flare the bars again, to close them in on us, but I had a grip on them now. I’d bypassed his little trickle to release the flood of Earth magic directly.

I opened my eyes, and Lucio and Stavro screamed as the fury of magma ate their bones.