Yully drew a deep breath, like she did when she was shooting clay pigeons. She focused on the target, a plate above the hearth. She'd never suspected the depths of her father's strange power, and her first attempt to channel it was the reason the house was now lit with candles. She'd shorted out the electricity.
"Breathe in, take what you can, and hold it," he instructed. "It's the same thing you do to change an object into another, only normal objects have far less energy to control."
She braced herself and pulled his power into her, struggling to control it while panic rose. It wanted to roam around her body instead of staying at her core, where she wanted it.
"Good," her father said. "Don't fight it. It can't hurt you. You're like a vase and the magic is the water."
Yully forced herself to relax. Her grip on his hand tightened, while she loosened her grip on the foreign magic in her body.
"It feels so weird," she said. "Hot and cold mixed together and almost like it's raining inside me. I can't describe how strange this is, Father."
"Does it obey you?"
She concentrated hard, her eyes on the plate across the parlor. Instead of answering, she raised her arm and steadied her breath, as if she were holding a handgun. She willed the magic to hit its target. Lightning streaked from her fingertips, and she felt the magic sucked from her. It flew across the parlor, and the plate exploded.
"Very, very good," he said, an odd glow in his eyes as he gazed at the place where the plate had been.
"I understand what I'm doing, but I don't understand why." She chose her words carefully. "Of what use is this type of talent?"
"There are many things I'm forbidden from telling you." Her father released her hand and gazed at her for a long moment. "The world is becoming a more dangerous place for you, and I'd hoped we could wait until the winter solstice to perform the rite. However, the Guardians are growing more aggressive, and they now know where you are. We have one chance to save humanity."
He was lying. She felt it. Yully cleared her mind to keep him from seeing that thought and nodded.
"You are like an empty vessel. You can be filled with water from any source. You can be filled with water from multiple sources. The same skill you've learned this morning, you can use against any Guardian or a whole group of Guardians. Let's try this," he said. "Stand before me."