The cool touch of the stream’s water felt like a distant comfort now. I’d been drawing from it every day, channeling its energy into everything I did, but it wasn’t enough. Not anymore.
Cornelius, my father, watched me from the edge of the clearing, arms crossed. His usual stern expression softened as he took a step closer.
“You’re relying too much on that stream,” he said, his voice a low rumble in the silence of the woods. “Water is everywhere, Faith. You need to learn to find it, to create it.”
I looked down at the pool forming in my hands, droplets hovering in the air before falling back into the stream. “What do you mean?” I asked, though I already had an idea.
“From the earth,” he continued, gesturing toward the nearby trees, “from the plants…and from living creatures.”
I shudde
