Eren has complicated feelings about the beach, the ocean. He wanted to see it so badly for so long, but all it was in the end was another cage, meant to punish his people for sins they did not commit, meant to trap them so they'd be easier to kill, like livestock penned in. The ocean was the start of his disappointment with everything after it.

If we kill all our enemies across the sea, will we finally be free?

He still doesn't know the answer. He just knows he doesn't want to walk that path.

But the ocean is also a promise of something else, something bigger, something beyond. And Armin had wanted to see it, spurring on Eren's own desire to see the world outside. He can't hate it.

Eren is well aware of the danger he's putting them both in by doing something insane and stupid like showing off, but even strange and distant and lost in his head, he's still Eren.

"Summer means fire," he says, holding a hand out in front of him, palm facing up. "It's hard at first, but you can learn."

After a second, a small flame appears hovering above Eren's hand. There's a bit of a chaotic element about it, like it could run out of control if he let it. He's not very good at reining it in, but he only lets it stay for a moment before closing his hand again and snuffing it out.

He knows he has a leg up in that he's been here long enough to access more of the seasonal magic, but that won't last forever, if Galliard sticks around. He was a soldier too; Eren has no doubt he'll learn.

But he doesn't mean it as a show of force really. He's started other conversations this way. The act of summoning the flame is grounding because he has to be present to do it, channelling his latent anger at everything into fire.

"I'd seen magic before coming here, but this is…different."