Control over the elements is dull until a man walks onto her world and makes her senses burn.

Vexaniali has spent her life in solitude, finding ways to entertain herself on an empty world that has become her prison. She was ordered to keep anyone from landing, but it was just a make-work job to keep her out of the way.

Burn arrives and offers her a chance to use her skills on a variety of worlds under the aegis of the Citadel Arcani.

Moving a cure around a world using her mastery of air is time consuming and tiring but not difficult. It is a good start, and when Burn offers himself to top up her flagging energies, how could she refuse?

Excerpt:

“Elemental, I have come to you with an offer to leave this place if you wish it.”

She rose to her feet and glided toward him with an unsettling grace. “What? You wish me to make another planet uninhabitable?”

He shook his head, catching hints of her scent as she walked around him with that peculiar stride. “I wish you to leave this place and find another use for your talents.”

“What of those who hired me?”

“They have released you from your contract. They released you nine hundred years ago, but the communications systems on Ki were dead by then.”

He slowly removed a document and extended it to her. “Here is the release.”

She took it from him and lifted it to the light, examining it closely. She ran her fingers along the document. “It has the feel of age.”

“It is nine centuries old. There was no way to deliver the news that you were free of obligation without landing here, and your orders were to keep Ki free of living creatures, so no message could reach you. It was quite the tangle.”

She smiled absently as she read the document. “Well, this is in order. Where do they want to send me?”

He slowly withdrew another document. “They are giving you your freedom. It is now up to you to decide what to do with it.”

Her hand trembled as she discarded the first document and took the one he offered. “Freedom?”

He noted the ache in his chest as her face ran through a myriad of expressions. He was feeling sympathy for this woman even though she had tried to kill him when he was topside. She was a designed being with enough power to kill a planet, but he still wanted to sooth the lost little girl that freedom had created in her.

Burn straightened. “You are free to do as you choose, but I am offering you a life where you can pursue education, be with others who have powers that can rock the world they stand on and help those in need.”

She looked at him, the document held carefully in her hands. “Are you telling the truth?”

“Of course.”

“I can have a free life with the ability to help others?”

He nodded. “Yes.”

She leaned forward, looked around and whispered, “Can I travel?”