The travel pavilion was quite a structure, and Olivia wondered why she’d never wandered inside during her explorations of the campus. It blended in well with the architecture in the area—sort of a white-washed, marble museum feel. Manicured lawns and hedges surrounded the structure and the wide, open archways that served as doorways allowed for easy ingress and egress, both for people and the flower-scented breeze.

When Olivia climbed the steps at the end of the cobbled pathway and walked through the eastern archway, she saw dozens of platforms and several fountains but no gateways. She supposed the gateways wouldn’t be open and active all the time, and the closer she looked, she began to realize there were a few archways of various construction on certain platforms. She walked toward one made of long, woven branches and saw a metal placard embedded in the marble platform that read, “A7.”

“Aha,” Olivia said, noting that all of the platforms held similar placards. She moved to her left and, reading the numbers as she progressed, found the open platform labeled “A3.” She hefted the heavy keystone for Morgan’s portal and looked around at the raised marble surface. “All right. Where do you go, hmm?” She scanned the smooth marble platform for any indication and saw a slight indentation on the far end where the platform approached the wall of the pavilion.

Not knowing what else to do, Olivia set the heavy, tapered rectangle of dark grey metal—why it was called a stone when it was clearly made of the same stuff as Morgan’s tower was beyond her—on the indentation and then stepped back from it. Nothing happened. “Oh, of course,” Olivia said, stepping forward to put a finger on the top of the stone. She pushed out a tiny trickle of Energy, watching as the metal “stone” soaked it up, slowly changing from inert, dark gray to the smoldering orange of an ember, though it gave off no heat. The stone started to vibrate and push forth gouts of white steam, so Olivia backed off, watching the process unfold.

As the keystone glowed and steamed, it started to expand, almost like it was unfolding from itself, and as Olivia observed, it grew into the exact same shape as the portal archways in Morgan’s tower. The dark metal archway ticked and hissed as it cooled, settling into its new form. Olivia walked up to the metal and touched it, and a System-like UI menu opened in her vision with three options:

***Vormendion’s Tower Portal #1***

Open Portal Lock Portal Assign Permissions

“Well, that’s easy enough.” Olivia figured she’d need to give Oylla permissions with the portal, but for the moment, she didn’t think she needed to do anything. Dusting her hands against each other with a satisfied smile, Olivia turned to the nearest pavilion exit and started on her way back to the main academy grounds.

As she walked through the gardens, Olivia passed near a small group of the strange, floating Onaghi, and though she’d seen several of them in her time at the academy, she didn’t know how to communicate with them. Still, she waved awkwardly, and the weird, billowy creatures waved their jellyfish-like tentacles her way, and she smiled, wondering if they’d understood her after all. Watching them float away, she found herself wondering how Bronwyn would react to such strange people, which brought on other thoughts about the woman she’d professed to love not long ago.

“Why’d you have to get mixed up with the Fae?” She asked the air. She wasn’t so much worried about Bronwyn. No, the woman had proven her resourcefulness enough times that Olivia was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. It was more like she was worried that she might never be as high a priority for Bronwyn as Bronwyn was for her. There was always a sense that part of her wasn’t being shared, wasn’t being fully open to Olivia. There was a connection between Bronwyn and the Summer Queen that Olivia couldn’t touch or even fathom. “Believe me, I tried plenty,” she said, resorting to her old habit of talking to herself now that her mind was idle and she was alone.

Thinking of their relationship and her complaints, Olivia wondered if it was fair for her to expect to share in every aspect of Bronwyn’s life. “Maybe not fair, but something I’d like. It’s not like I’m holding anything back from her.” The most annoying part of Bronwyn’s relationship with the Fae was that she seemed to have given up some of her autonomy and was apparently completely fine with it.

Olivia realized she’d been so deep in thought that she hadn’t noticed her entire walk back to the commons, and she paused to watch the student groups socializing, exercising, and relaxing in the warm afternoon sun. A smile brightened her face when she recognized some of Copper cohort sitting in a circle over near the alchemy pavilion.

Olivia hurried over, nervously smoothing her beautiful gray robes and glancing at her boots to ensure they weren’t scuffed. She ran her fingers through her hair and briefly contemplated putting on her crown but laughed the idea off—they’d never let her live it down if she walked up to them wearing a crown! Rald, Veena, and Shani were sitting in a loose circle, passing around some sort of card, and Olivia caught them by surprise when she barked, “All right, you lazy pups! Get up and give me twenty deadfalls, and then I’ll see you take turns with arm throws!”

Her own laughter broke the spell as Shani looked up in a momentary panic, and Rald joined in, saying, “Ancestors, Liv! You don’t sound anything like Grobak!”

“Olivia!” Veena said, her white-painted face breaking into a huge smile.

“Hi, Veena! Rald, Shani! I missed you guys! I’m so happy to be back! Where’s Adaida? Hanwol?”

“Well, speaking of Grobak,” Rald chuckled, “He kept them after class. He said Adaida was talking too much, and Hanwol could earn some extra credit throwing the bean bags at her while she climbed ropes.”

“God, seriously? I was just joking, invoking the old grump; I didn’t think he was really still terrorizing you all.” Olivia glanced toward the main campus and the basement gymnasium where Adaida was, apparently, going through some rough extra lessons.

“Why don’t you head to the gym,” Rald said with a wink. “I bet Adaida would cheer up real quick if she saw you waiting on the sideline.”

“Yes, Olivia! Go meet Adaida. We’ll see you in the dorm a bit later!” Shani chimed in, standing up to hug Olivia. “Roots, Olivia! You’re even bigger than I remember—did you advance your race? You seem so dense with power; it’s almost like standing next to Professor Oylla-dak!”

“She’s right, Liv,” Rald said, standing up and moving close to her, using his hand to measure his height against hers. “What level are you now?”

“Well, um, guys, I gained a lot of levels in the Proving Grounds, you know that, right? So, anyway, when I got home, I had to go through a portal to another world to help rescue a friend, and things weren’t exactly peaceful there. I gained a few more levels and, yeah, advanced my race a bunch. I’m level twenty-five now.”

“Twenty-five? Orla’s Bones, Olivia! How are we supposed to compete with that?” Veena’s eyes looked like storm clouds brewing, and Olivia knew she’d triggered her competitive streak.

“You’re not, Veena! I’m on your team, remember? I spoke with Oylla, and she promised me I could stay in Copper.”

“You’re going to feel pretty bored in our classes, Liv,” Rald said with a snort.

“I’ll be in Spellcraft and Cultivation. The rest of the day, I have to work as an apprentice to some old professor or another.”

“That makes sense,” Shani said, seeming to take everything in perfect stride. “Well, go find Adaida, will you? She’s been talking about you constantly.”

“All right. See you guys a bit later. I’m still me, okay?”

“Yeah, sure, Liv. See you at the dorm,” Rald waved, and so did Veena, seeming to warm a bit, struggling to come to grips with the fact that she didn’t have to compete with Olivia.

Olivia turned and started walking to the gym, excited but also nervous and, for some reason, harboring a pit of guilt at the center of her stomach. Why did she feel guilty? “Because I’m wondering what Bronwyn would think of me going to see Adaida. I’m wondering how Adaida is going to react when I tell her about Bronwyn.”

Olivia knew she was right, but saying her thoughts out loud didn’t really help because she knew she wasn’t telling the whole truth. There was another option that she was leaning toward if she were being honest: she was contemplating not mentioning Bronwyn to Adaida. She was thinking about putting things off until she’d visited home again and spent some time talking to Bronwyn about the things in their relationship that were bothering her.

Maybe it was a moot point. Maybe Adaida was happy just staying friends—Olivia had been gone quite a while, after all. First, she’d been in the Proving Grounds for weeks, and then she’d gone home for a vacation that was supposed to last a week or so, but she’d disappeared for months. “Right, no doubt she’s forgotten all about her old crush on me.”

Olivia looked up and saw that she was in the last stretch of the wide hallway that led to Grobak’s gym. When she walked in through the open double doors, she almost laughed aloud to see how many poor students Grobak had working on remedial training—he must have been in a very bad mood, indeed. Shouts and grunts echoed around the high walls, and Olivia was surprised to feel her heart rate increase; the room stressed her out.

Olivia scanned the enormous indoor space, glad to see that Grobak was on the far side screaming at some students from Bone cohort. She looked to the left, where the ropes hung from the high ceiling, and, sure enough, there was Adaida climbing and leaping between swinging ropes, dodging the bean bag missiles that Hanwol was firing at her with maniacal glee. Adaida was proving to be a difficult target, but how easy was it to dodge a seemingly endless supply of beanbags while straining to climb and swing on ropes? Hanwol struck home several times while Olivia watched, to the frustrated outcries of the auburn-haired Ghelli.

Olivia leaned against the wall and surreptitiously tried to help her friend with some well-timed Wind Gusts—throwing beanbags off target and eliciting curses from the little Bogoli. Olivia was starting to worry about Adaida as she struggled to hang onto the ropes, but Grobak finally relented, blowing his whistle and telling all the detained students to get out of his sight. Olivia watched as Adaida let go of the high rope and used her wings to break her fall, gently fluttering to the gym floor.

“Nice one, Adaida!” she called out, and her two cohort members jerked their gazes her way, and then Adaida was running toward her, and Olivia’s face split into a beaming smile, and she held her arms out, eager to hug her friend. Hanwol followed after at a more sedate pace, but he fell away from her conscious mind as Adaida’s thin frame crashed into her, and they embraced.

Adaida’s thick hair smelled familiar and good, and the way her narrow frame pressed into her brought heat to Olivia’s cheeks. Suddenly she was overwhelmed by guilt again, and she gently took hold of Adaida’s shoulders and pushed her back. “Nice to see you too, Adaida!”

“I missed you so much, Liv! I was afraid you’d never make it back to our world! Did you know it was me that helped Oylla scry you? My connection to you made it possible! She said she’d never have been able to get such a clear image without my help!”

“She did mention that you helped! I missed you too! I missed all of you,” Olivia added, smiling at Hanwol, who stood behind Adaida with his white-gloved hands folded in front of his robe.

“Glad you’re back, Olivia,” Hanwol said. “It’s good that you’re here—have you heard about the murders?”

“Mother of Trees, Hanwol! That’s how you greet our friend? With talk of murder?”

“I have heard, yes. Come on, you two. Let’s go to the dorm. I think we all have more catching up to do, hmm?”

“All right,” Adaida said, then added, “But I want some time alone with you soon. I have a lot to share with you, and I want to hear all about your time away.”

“Of course, Adaida,” Olivia said, smiling, though there was a pang of dismay in her heart.