Where there’s smoke, there’s usually something smoking. Most people considered that to be fire, but Vidvan was certain it could be otherwise.

“If someone can conjure fire from what appears to be nothing but energy, couldn’t they conjure the effects of fire without the fire?”

His teacher looked down at him. “Explain.” She had the type of face that probably should have had spectacles. Vidvan thought she squinted a little too much.

“If the process is that fire creates earth, creates ash, then…”

He had it. He’d had it. Then it was gone. The idea had been brilliant. And he knew that it had been, if he hadn’t somehow lost the threads of his thought. He had to find it again.

After all, where there was smoke…