I was intrigued. The idea Fiona might have some answers, and she might share my struggle with balance, gave me hope. I wandered over to the small window and looked out on the sea. As well as the tumultuous waves echoing my anxiety, I could now see the sparkle on the waves from the midafternoon sun. Glimmers of hope in this dark lighthouse.

"There's just one problem," I said, turning to face Agnes, who had taken the single chair in the room. "Fiona isn't allowed to visit. The council doesn't trust her, so there's no way they would let her visit me. Someone they see as their prisoner."

Agnes nodded. "I know, and it's not without reason. I'm sure more than one of them is fearful of what you will be capable of doing. But what about the pendant you found? The one with the warlock's mark?"

I touched the pendant around my neck. I'd somehow forgotten about it in the chaos following my arrest.

"Yes," I said, running my fingers over the metal, feeling the warmth thrumming through it.

"You've summoned her with it before, haven't you?" Agnes asked gently.

I love the fact Agnes didn't give directions but asked questions. It was as if she wanted me to work things out by myself. I tried to recall how I'd called her to me just a few hours ago. I had no idea what I was doing then, but she appeared like the pendant had conjured her.

"Not on purpose," I said. "I don't know how this thing works."

"But you know how to do it now, Evie. Trust your intuition. You can call her. If you focus on the pendant and on Fiona, she'll feel it."

"Are you sure?" I unclasped the pendant from around my neck. I'd been holding it in my hand before rather than wearing it. I wanted to do what I'd done before. I was unsure I could make this work, but I had to try.

The thought of summoning someone like I was ordering a takeout was bizarre, and there was a part of me that wondered how ethical it was to have another being at my beck and call. It kinda felt like I had my own genie and I didn't like the idea of having that kind of control.

"Will it work if she's not allowed to come here? Will the wards block her?" I asked.

Agnes smiled. "Fiona has ways of moving unseen. If you call her, she'll find a way. I don't think anyone would have considered calling a shadow weaver when the wards were established. I don't know anyone other than May who has that ability."

I closed my eyes and held the locket in my hand, feeling its warmth vibrate against my skin. I thought of Fiona's face, her ice-grey eyes. Was I supposed to rub the pendant like you rub a lamp? I decided I would do this respectfully, and I asked for her guidance, whispering her name.

Nothing happened at first. Then I felt it, a change in the air, as if the shadows were moving. I opened my eyes and looked at Agnes, who smiled at me as she relaxed back into her chair. Her calmness suggested I'd done the right thing.

"Just give it time," she said. "Fiona will come."

The room darkened, and I watched as smoke, or was it shadows, gathered in the middle of the room despite the bright afternoon sunlight. The shadow deepened in a way I couldn't explain until it receded and a figure coalesced in the middle of the room. Fiona, her figure silhouetted against the bright light from the window.

Fiona's arrival was accompanied by a sudden drop in temperature. She came over to me and hugged me. I stood still in her hold, shocked I had called her and that she chose to embrace me.

"I'm glad you called me," she said. "I couldn't have come here by myself with the wards around this lighthouse. The wards prevent Cedric getting here too, and he's rather annoyed about it."

My heart fluttered. I wasn't sure how it had worked, but somehow I had some control over the pendant and the arcanite within it. I don't know how it worked, but the pendant, my focus, had brought Fiona here. I looked at Agnes, hoping to see some surprise or doubt, but there was none. She gave me a proud smile. She had expected this.

"That must bug him," said Agnes, slowly getting to her feet. She gave Fiona a hug, and I was sure she whispered thank you in her ear. I was so confused, when had they become friendly like this, I didn't remember seeing any warmth between them before.

"I'll be honest," I said. "I didn't really believe Agnes when she said I could call you here."

Fiona smiled. "But you did." She looked around the sparse room. "Although, I have to say, you could have picked somewhere better to meet."

Like I had a choice. I wasn't used to the idea she had a sense of humour.

Her light tone didn't disguise the fact that she was here because I had called for her, because I needed her help.

I nodded at the pendant in my hand, which was still warm from the power it used to bring Fiona here. "Agnes said you might be able to help me understand... everything that's going on. I don't know why, but it feels as if the earth is angry and it feels like it's because of me."

Fiona reached out a hand towards me but stopped short of touching me. "The connection between an Earth Elemental and the land is strong," she said. "But making it right when it's been disturbed... that's tricky."

"What do you mean, I haven't done anything?"

Fiona folded her arms, the shadows in the room gathering around her like a shroud. "Not deliberately, and without May to teach you, you are walking a path none of us wanted you to walk alone. Loss is a chasm that echoes through the soul," she said. "When I lost my sister to the dark magic I had dabbled in, it nearly consumed me. It disrupted the balance within me, much as your emotions have with the land."

I was taken aback. I didn't expect Fiona to be so open about her past. "The balance we keep talking about isn't just about righting what's wrong. It's about understanding the depth of your connection to the earth and using it to harmonize with nature's rhythm."

"I don't understand."

"The only way I can describe it is like when you are learning to play a musical instrument. It's easy to make a noise, and that it what you have been doing with your powers recently. It's harder to learn to play a tune, to create complex harmonies. The first step is to recognise when things are discordant. When you can hear that something is wrong, you can do something to change it."

I thought about the soil that had turned black under my touch and the plants that had died and then regrown. My emotions had always affected plants, but Fiona was suggesting I needed to learn how to control that, to use it.

"How did you find your balance after losing your sister?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.

Fiona looked past me for a moment before meeting my eyes. "I embraced the darkness inside me," she said. "I let it teach me about the fine line between control and chaos. For you, it will be about connecting with the earth, feeling its heartbeat, and learning its language. It's music."

Agnes nodded. "You're not just living on this land, Evie. You are part of it. Your grandmother knew that. She knew that an Earth Elemental needs to be in tune with its environment."

So Gran had known what I would face. She believed I could restore balance, but faith was one thing. I had no idea where to start.

Fiona stepped forward is if reading my confusion. "Start small," she said. "Listen to what the land is telling you, hear its melody. Don't command it. Work with it."

The thought of working with something as immense as the earth, essentially the entire planet, was daunting, but was she right?

I didn't tell the ground to shake. It responded to my feelings as if they were its own.

"Will you help me?" I asked Fiona, strapping the pendant back around my neck.

She looked at me for a moment before nodding. "Yes," she said. "Are you ready for lesson 1?"

I nodded and swallowed. "Okay, I'm ready."

Fiona half-smiled and nodded. "Then let's get started," she said. "Close your eyes."

I did. I allowed my focus on the lighthouse to disappear, to focus on the sound of my breathing. After all, that's what every meditation had ever taught me to do.

"Now," Fiona's voice said, closer than before, "I want you to feel the earth beneath you. Picture its layers, its core."

I thought about the ground below me. I tried to connect with it but I was separated from the ground being so high in the air. I could sense and feel none of the energy lines I was so used to.

"I can't feel anything. There's no ground, no earth for me to touch."

"Keep your eyes closed," Fiona urged. "Focus on the wood floorboards. They are part of the living world, they grow in the earth. Their roots spread through it."

Concentrating on the wood, I imagined it as a living organism connected to the ground. The wood under my feet, which was cool, began to feel warmer as I thought about the connections to the earth and the roots of the trees. I could faintly see the energy lines, the lines of connection.

"I sense something faint," I said.

"Good," Fiona said. "Now, I want you to reach out with your feelings. Apologize to it."

"Apologize?" I wasn't sure what she meant. How could I apologize to the earth? It felt like a strange thing to do, but Fiona's voice was so earnest.

"Trust her," Agnes urged.

"I'm sorry," I said, not sure if I was doing it right.

"More," Fiona said. "Mean it."

I took a deep breath, considering the plants I had uprooted and the shaking of the earth I had caused. "I'm sorry I hurt you. I didn't understand my own power, my connection to you."

There was a slight shift in the air around me, as if the world was listening to me.

"Now, open your eyes and look at what's in front of you."

I opened my eyes and gasped. On the floor in front of me was a flowerpot filled with soil. Fiona must have brought in with her a piece of earth in this cold stone tower.

"Touch it," she said.

I reached out and touched the earth. It was dry and crumbly.

"Can you feel its pain?" Fiona asked.

I concentrated on the feeling in my fingers. I could feel something like a faint pulse of distress.

"Yes," I said. "I can feel it."

Fiona nodded. "Now heal it."