She waited for three minutes, and then, her phone chirped. Come on over. Dress to sweat. You have one hour to use your portal.
“Oh, shit. Right.”
Imara quickly got an exercise bag together with bottles of water, put on a set of grubby sneakers, and when Mr. E was on her shoulder, she stood in front of the stones and powered them up the same way she offered energy to a spectre. A moment later, she was looking at Ritual Space, and Adrea was sitting and reading a book in her garden.
The scene was so idyllic, Imara hated to ruin it.
Imara stepped through, and after a short moment of disorientation, she settled on the other side with her familiar on her shoulder.
Adrea waved at her. “You made it!”
Imara nodded, and Mr. E was kneading her shoulder. “Yes, Mr. E, you can go play.”
He was off her shoulder and bolting after some bunnies who waited for him before leading him into the undergrowth at high speed. Imara could hear him giggling via their connection.
“Hyl will be here within the hour, but he said I should start you on a few things.”
There was a stack of books in the centre of the table, and each book had a bookmark hanging through it.
“Each of these has a spell necessary to what you are going to be doing, so he suggested you begin studying until he arrives. Once he does, you are heading to a special section of the space that I have put aside for your training.”
Imara sat and pulled one of the books toward her. “I don’t know how to thank you two.”
“Pass your exam. Hyl says that women are frequently sabotaged in the course, so he wants you to shove it in McClairie’s face.”
“Ah. Well, that does explain the major dicks in the room.” Imara smirked and opened the first book. The spell that he marked was Surface tension and wall climbing. It was a good place to start.
By the time Hyl had arrived, she had made it through Obscuring the scent of magic, and Passing through. She was in the middle of Pulling shadows when Hyl walked in and gave Adrea a kiss that turned her bright red.
Hyl lifted his head and smiled at Imara. “Are you ready to work?”
“I am.”
“Good. There is a pack under the table, bring the books.”
She scrambled to put the books in the pack, and she shifted it to her back, grabbing a bottle of water.
“Where is your familiar?”
“He is off playing with the bunnies.”
“Good. It is better that he is occupied. This is going to take a while.” Hyl nodded, turned, and jogged off toward the nearest stand of trees.
Imara turned back and smiled at Adrea. “See you later!”
Adrea waved her on.
Imara turned her back on her host and ran after her tutor.
Hyl was walking briskly, but no matter how fast Imara ran, she could never quite catch up with him.
The books were excessively heavy, but she just hitched the straps tighter until they moved with every step she took.
She chased him for half an hour before she burst out of the forest path and ended up in an open field with a wide tower in the centre of it. Hyl was standing near the bricked tower.
She ran up to him and paused. “What next?”
“Climb it.”
She looked up at the tower and back to him. “Pardon me?”
“I have observed your musculature, you will be able to support yourself, so you have two hours to climb the tower and then, I will help you with your technique.”
She stared at him. “You are kidding.”
“I am not. You can use any method that you can to get to the second story.”
She paused and nodded. “Including the books on my back.”
“Correct. I am here if you have questions, but figuring things out for yourself is more useful. We can tweak the technique from there.”
It was a challenge she wasn’t backing down from. She got the pack settled firmly on her back and stepped forward.
Chapter Five
Imara fell on her ass three times before she used the sticking spell. Once she had placed the spell on her body, she was able to press her body against the wall and use it as a point of grip as she slowly crept upward.
“Well done. You read the books?”
“A few of them.” She grunted and pushed up with her foot while reaching with the opposite hand. “The ones that were bookmarked.”
“Bookmarked? Huh.” Hyl chuckled.
She reached up, and her hand hit open air. She glanced up and exhaled.
“Now for the hard part. Come down slowly. Be sure of your footing.”
She didn’t nod, she just did as he suggested. Her hands were aching, her toes were cramping, but she still moved down, row by row.
When she hit solid ground, she dropped like a stone. She sat on the ground, her knees splayed, feet curled inside her shoes, and her fingers wrapped inward to stop their raw throbbing.
Hyl looked her over and nodded. “I will be right back.”
He went into the tower and emerged a minute later with a thermos flask. He crouched next to her and poured a cup. One look at her hands and he held the cup to her lips. “Drink it. It is the same tea that she gave you the other day but with nettles to help make your skin more durable.”
She swallowed and winced at the burn of the tea. The last time it had been cool.
He pulled the cup back. “It has to burn to toughen your skin. How are your hands?”
She flexed them, and the raw and bloody fingertips were healing over. “Are you sure she doesn’t use magic?”
He chuckled. “No. The herbs are grown here, and they have their own magic.”
“Do they work outside the space?”
“Sure. Adrea is just getting her online shop ready. The sales will be by invitation only after the purchaser has passed a security check, but yeah, she is going digital.”
“Nice. She will sell out in seconds.”
Hyl chuckled. “I am not so sure. Most mages have some kind of legal trouble in their histories. If they do, we will find it.”
“So, getting caught during my exam would knock me off the list.”
“No, but getting caught the day after would.”
She pulled her legs up and rested her forearms on her knees. “So, I have one night to finish the exam?”
He grinned. “That is where folks get it wrong. You have twenty-three hours and fifty-nine minutes.”
Imara stared at him. “So any time during that day. Oh, wow. That makes things easier and exponentially harder.”
“How harder?”
“I don’t know what the best time would be. This is going to take some research.”
“You will figure it out. That is one point where I can’t advise you. All I can do is give you the physical skills to engage in your stealth manoeuvres.”
“Right.”
He nodded. “Now, do your hands feel better?”
She looked at them and nodded. “They do.”
“Good. Now get back up the tower and try to keep it under two hours this time.”
She widened her eyes. “It took longer than two hours?”
“Yes, it did. Now, get up and get down in under two hours.”
She nodded and grunted as she got to her feet. She faced the tower, summoned the sticking spell, and crawled upward as quickly as she could. This time, her limbs obeyed her, and she was able to move along the stone in what felt like a few minutes.