Silver turned the emerald in his hand absently as he asked, "What are we going to do?"

"We need to make the most of the time we have," Millie said, "so we'll focus on the necessities." She counted on her fingers. "Floating, teleportation, chaos spears, chaos boost, healing, and slowing time. If you can get the basics down, you'll have a pretty good advantage. However…"

She gestured for Silver to look around Hidden Palace, pointing out carvings of legends. He looked from image to image. A picture of an echidna aglow with chaos energy, brought to his knees by the intense power. A picture of a crowd looking upon the ruins left by a chaos energy overload. And the biggest of the murals: a picture of a huge beast of water destroying all in its path.

She warned, "You've got a lot of power in your hands. What you choose to do with it will determine your future. It can boost you or corrupt you. Never let your confidence lead you astray. My ancestors know the troubles of chaos energy well. Learn from their mistakes."

Silver acknowledged the instruction with a solemn nod. He noticed Blaze standing near him, examining the carvings with a troubled look. Quietly, he asked her, "Are the sol emeralds this…dangerous?"

"In their own way. If it weren't for the fire that runs in my family, I would have burned myself up during my apprenticeship."

Silver swallowed nervously. "I'm going to get myself hurt, aren't I?"

"You have chaos energy in your blood, just as I have sol energy in mine. I trust that you will be able to meet the challenge," Blaze assured.

"Thanks." A slight smile appeared on the hedgehog's face. "You seem pretty knowledgeable about this kind of thing. Do you have any ideas? Advice?"

"Well, training is important. But having faith in yourself is also vital. You can't let the power go to your head, but lacking confidence is as much a weakness as overconfidence." Speaking from experience, the princess continued, "Your state of mind will have a big impact on your interactions with chaos energy. Especially how well you can control it. Maintain your composure. If you feel the energy boiling inside you," She clasped her hands at her chest and took a deep breath in. Silver copied her and they released the breath in a slow, even sigh.

"Breathing exercises," she explained, "Don't get lost in your head. Keep yourself grounded. It's easy to spiral."

"Reminds me of something my dad taught me. When everything feels overwhelming, focus on things one at a time. One thing you see. One thing you hear. Sometimes you need to take a step back."

Blaze smiled and nodded, "Good to remember."

As they returned to Millie, Silver couldn't ignore how drawn to Blaze he felt. Her calm demeanor was just what he needed to ease his rushing mind. He matched her steady pace across the room in an effort to control his fidgety excitement.

Holly didn't look too pleased to see Silver hanging at Blaze's side. Silver tilted his head at the hedgehog, confused by her frown. She turned away, preferring not to dwell on the topic. "Well, Millie," she prompted, "now what?"

"We'll hone what he knows before we add anything new." The guardian looked at Silver, "What do you want to start with?"

"Floating sounds really fun. But teleporting might be more useful. Uhhh…floating. Maybe it'll be easier?"

Millie laughed a little, "You'll find out. Alright, get the emerald and give it a try."

To Silver's excitement, lifting off the ground was much easier this time. But as thrilled as he was with his progress, he forced himself to keep calm. Trying to act as if nothing strange was happening, he asked, "Do you think I can move without falling?"

"Only one way to find out."

Silver lifted an arm experimentally. When he didn't immediately spin out of control, he swung his other arm out. He pulled his knees in, making an effort to not overthink the motion. So far, so good. Now for something a little more reckless.

Maybe he wouldn't start spinning wildly again. The memory of laying on the ground, whining while his dad rubbed his back pityingly, was still fresh in his mind. He felt a little sick just thinking about it. Okay, time to forget about that.

He steadied himself, then flung himself backwards. He had to stop himself from making another spin and the landing was a bit clumsy, but he hadn't faceplanted or gotten queasy, so…success?

And at least Blur was impressed, "Whoa! I didn't know you could do a backflip!"

"I've never done a backflip. Ever. In my entire life." Silver grinned to himself. "First time for everything." With renewed enthusiasm, he looked to Millie, "Now what?"

"Try moving from here to that pillar."

"Uh. How? I get the moving my limbs around part, but how do I actually move? Is it like flying or swimming or walking or what?"

"More like flying," Blaze explained. "I've done it with the sol emeralds. Just propel yourself in the direction you want to go."

"Like this?" Silver charged up chaos energy and unleashed it, throwing himself forward. He hadn't put much thought into stopping, resulting in a quick crash.

"T-that was a chaos boost. Not uh…" Mille shook the thought away. "Never mind. Good job. Just, maybe tone it down a little bit. You'll wear yourself out if you keep doing that."

Silver picked himself up. "Good idea. That kinda hurt."

"Need a moment?"

"No. I'm good. But can I try something less painful now?"

"Teleporting?"

Silver looked around, imagining himself smacking into another wall or falling. "Let's try the chaos spears."

"Pick a target. Carefully. And visualize a bolt of chaos energy running down your arm. Then as you throw your arm out, release the energy." She retrieved an empty supply crate. "Here. Try to hit this."

Silver stared the crate down. He brought his hand up, collecting chaos energy. Then he pitched forward. Rather than a directed spear of energy, the projectile took the shape of a wave. It rolled forward like an approaching storm, disintegrating the crate on impact.

The room went so quiet, Silver could hear the splinters scattering across the ground.

Once again, Millie looked a little surprised. "Wow. You've definitely got a natural affinity for chaos control. Seems you don't know your own strength."

Silver babbled for a moment before finally regaining his voice, "What was that!?"

"It looked like a directed chaos blast. Incredible. All the destructive power of a chaos blast, but with the precision of a chaos spear." She clasped her hands together, clearly awed.

Silver looked back at the little left of the crate. Was he really capable of something like that!? He swallowed nervously, "I-I, uh, whoa. I'm, um 'm impressed, but…I hope I don't need to do that…"

"I don't blame you," Millie said, a little sheepishly. Continuing to backpedal from her initial excitement, she added, "Ideally, you really wouldn't need that much firepower. So, uh, let's work on something less…destructive. Healing?"

"Y-yeah." Silver picked himself up, still a little shaky. "I'll probably need it."

"It's pretty simple. You already know how to draw energy from the emerald. Instead of channeling it into an attack or a push, just let it flow into you. The important thing is to only take what you need. Too much and you might overload."

"Alright, sounds easy enough." Silver pulled a little chaos energy from the emerald. He felt an invigorating rush of energy. Wary of a future energy crash, he stopped the inflow. He stretched, feeling much better.

"How's it feel?" Holly questioned.

"Like an adrenaline rush. But less tiring and scary."

Millie nodded approvingly, "Doing good. Just don't forget to be careful."

Silver thought for a moment, following an idea that had popped into his head, "Most forms of chaos control are attacks. Then there's the floating and teleporting and time stuff. But what about defense?"

Millie tilted her head, intrigued, "You mean like forcefields?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sure it's possible. Chaos energy can do all kinds of things. If you can create blades of energy, I'm sure it wouldn't be impossible to create a wall."

"So do I just… squish a bunch of energy together like a snowball?"

"That's one way to put it. The specifics don't really matter. As long as you know what you want to do and the gist of how to make it happen. That's the beauty of chaos control. If you have that knack, it comes easily. Until you get into the complicated stuff. Then it's pretty rough. But I'm getting off track. Try it. See what happens."

"Okay. I haven't been to Ice Cap in a long time. But I think I can just…or maybe?" Silver collected a ball of chaos energy in his hands, then flung his arms out. The orb expanded like a balloon, surrounding him.

Millie found herself just outside the pale blue sphere. She couldn't help but reach out to brush her fingertips against it. A tingle of chaos energy ran up her arm. A tiny squeeing noise escaped from behind her grin.

Holly laughed, "I've never seen Millie geek out that much."

"I think it's fully justified," she defended. "I'm just excited to be able to share my knowledge. And seeing such skill in action!" She turned her excited gushing toward Silver. "You learn fast. From floating in place to improvising uses for chaos energy already. You'll be doing incredible things before you know it." She quickly added, "Don't let it go to your head though!"

Blaze joined in, "You would make for a fine guardian one day."

Silver looked down at his feet, flustered by the compliment. "T-thanks."

She moved to Silver's side as he lowered the shield and gave him a tiny smile. "See? You've got it in you. A little confidence goes a long way. Just…make sure you know where you're going." She giggled softly. Silver blushed.

Holly gave Silver a light bump on the arm. "Let's move on."