Elio felt the burn in his body. He considered letting it out, letting it breathe. It would be easy, effortless even. All he had to was let it flow, follow the channels, and project it out of his open palms... But he quickly crushed his desires into his fist. It had taken him some time to arrive at this mansion, and for a good portion of that, he had been walking. With nothing better to do, he had practised his new 'ability'. He wanted to know what it was, how it worked. He wanted to control it, so that he wouldn't burn anymore of his belongings. His progress was... disappointing.

The chief issue was its frustrating inconsistency. Sometimes, things would go fine. He would think of a form for it, and it would come out more less like he wanted it too. As for every other time, well. Elio had mostly been travelling in the wilderness with no one around, and that had proven to be a wise decision. His parents' book had helped, or maybe it hadn't. Sometimes, before he released the energy, he could feel whether it would be good or bad for him. He still didn't know how it would end up, and it didn't work all the time, but sometimes he would have a bad feeling, and every time he released his magic with that bad feeling, bad things happened. A pretty clear and obvious association, but he couldn't help but be frustrated at the vagueness of it all. How much of it was because of the book, and how much of it was his own intuition?

[color=orange]"Do you think this is the time for that?"[/color] Elio asked, turning his head to scan the surroundings. [color=orange]"It feels a bit... ominous around here."[/color]
Ominous, that was a good word for it. Whether it was the chill wind blowing in, or the feeling of being watched from the windows, something felt off. He had a pretty good instinct about these kinds of things, but nothing looked out of place. Was it just him being nervous from meeting with strangers? Was it because his nerves had been worn down by the journey? Or could it have been some magical sense he had been newly awoken to?

Whatever it was, he would probably only find out after it happened. That was how things usually ended up for Elio.