It took a long time to wrangle everyone into a single file line that snaked across the small valley, and I was nowhere near anyone I even remotely recognized by the time we were sorted – other than Kene, of course, who still hadn’t let go of my hand.

As the sun rose higher and higher in the sky, burning off the mists and dew in the valley, I felt it.

Not everyone did. Kene shivered slightly, but otherwise didn’t seem to notice.

But a few of us, maybe one in every hundred or two, physically jerked back.

Something was coming.

The winds that ran across my spirit and mana whipped wildly, like nothing I’d ever felt before. It wasn’t the crushing domination that Ivy had put on me, because there was no will pushing down. It was simply… Wild.

It wasn’t a contest between wills, it was staring into the sun.

I sketched the spell that Kene’s grandmother had given me, the Surveyor Eagle’s Eyes, and my vision zoomed in more precisely on the spot where I could feel the power emerging.

Then, slowly, almost hesitantly, a rent in the air appeared, no bigger than a silver coin. It expanded outwards, and over the course of two full minutes, it had expanded to the size of a large doorway.

Then, as if it had been waiting for exactly that moment, the grayish warp in space lit with swirling rainbow color, and a woman stepped out of the portal.

She looked green and blue, with swirling rivers and mountains forming a dress, and drifting white clouds spreading across her form.

Unlike where Dusk’s dress of clouds resembled a frumpled old lady dress, and her stature was like the small folk, this spirit’s form was tall and shapely, with a short cut dress and long, void black hair.

Even with those differences, though, there was no debating it.

She was a worldspirit, just like Dusk.

The worldspirit’s mana swept out over the valley and mountains, and it fit just right, a part of the environment itself. It put no pressure on my own mana-garden, though, and I was glad.

Because the worldspirit felt every bit as powerful as Orykson had, when he’d unveiled himself, if not stronger. Peak seventh, maybe even low eighth gate mana. If she’d wanted to slam down on us with the full weight of her mana, she could have crushed everyone in this entire valley, except for maybe a few of the organizers.

Instead, the way it flowed throughout the valley strengthened all of us, supporting our spirits, bolstering our mental state, and even our bodies. I felt the Magister’s Body spell react to the wave of power and drink it in greedily, and throughout the valley, I could feel others doing similar things.

Even next to me, I felt it pushing away the power of the hag bound within Kene’s legacy, and bolstering the power of the tattoos that kept the hag sealed away.

The spirit floated upwards until she was above all of us, but below the mountains that made up the corners of the island, and spoke. When she spoke, it resonated through her mana, and I could hear it coming from everywhere and nowhere.

“Welcome, one and all, to the Idyll-Flume.”

Unlike Dusk, who spoke in nature sounds and bird speech, this worldspirit spoke what – to me – sounded like plain old Mossfordian.

Dusk had crawled out of my pocket at that point and was gazing up at the floating worldspirit. She tugged on my hair and pointed up at the worldspirit, then let out a soft wind-in-trees sound that packed away so much meaning that I wasn’t even sure what she was saying.

“I am the facilitator of the Idyll-Flume,” the worldspirit continued, “and it is good to see so many talented youth who wish to inherit the legacy of my great master and creator, the Sevenfold Celestial Sage.”

Dusk burbled her question out slower this time, and I blinked at her. She had asked if I thought she’d be able to fly like that one day.

“Really? That’s the part that most interests you? Not the human-sized form, or the speech, or even the ability to take control of an entire island’s mana ecosystem?” I asked in a whisper.

Dusk nodded, responding with a hushed raven’s caw that flight was cool, and being big just seemed like an inconvenience, especially if she could fly to reach things that were way up high.

“Within this Astral Plane, you will find the spoils of a vast degree of mana and energy that has been building up and infusing the world for the last twenty-four years, seven months, and six days,” the worldspirit above us said. “But such things are the least of the prizes that can be found within.”

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She held up her hand and a plant appeared in it. It had five long, drooping leaves, and it was purple, rather than green, with its edges made of gold.

“This is the Golden Destiny Elixir plant,” she continued. “A rare and incredibly valuable plant that grows only within the astral plane. A talented alchemist can extract a single drop of that great elixir from a full plant. You may be thinking – a single drop? What use is that?”

The worldspirit drifted a little bit lower and smiled, though I could only tell she was smiling because of the spell I was using.

“A single drop can burn away a significant portion of the mists in a mana-garden. It can burn away all of the imperfections in a spell. It can water an ingrained spell to make it permanently stronger. It can be sunk into the soil of a mana-garden to make the mana it produces ever so slightly more dense. And more besides, though I’ll leave some of those for you to find out.”

She skyrocketed upwards and her tone firmed.

“However! You should cut only the leaves from this plant. Not only is attempting to remove it by the roots reason for me to forcibly remove you from the Idyll-Flume, but it is also dangerous to anyone below Arcanist. Yes, even for those of you who have reached the winds stage. Yes, even with the spells your parents bought to defend you. Yes, even for a plant mage.”

The power that had seeped through the area, bolstering our magic, suddenly turned against us – not much, not an attack. But enough to put pressure on us, to let us know that it took her no effort to crush us like a bug.

“Heed the warning,” she said, her smile slipping away. “If I see you fail to, I will remove you, and you will not be allowed to return.”

The pressure eased, and her smile returned.

“Then, there is the tower, which the great Sevenfold Celestial Sage died to create. Eight stories tall, and if you can climb to the eighth level, you shall claim the complete legacy of the Sage. Such a legacy could allow you to rewrite the maps. The wild city of Delitone could become the start of your new nation. You could claim the lands of Suntorch or Dragontooth as your own. Perhaps even fight for Mossford itself…”

There was a whispering through the crowd at that, and the worldspirit clapped.

“And fear not! Each level comes with its own altar that will grant you a reward. Now, without further ado…”

There was a flash of light, and she was gone, her voice ringing out over the island.

“Let us begin!”

The line started shifting forwards, and a few people broke from it, trying to rush in sooner, only to be pushed back by the organizers from the ship. I let go of the Surveyor’s Eye spell, and felt a very mild headache from where it had drained my reserves of mental and knowledge energy in my mind.

It wasn’t too bad, so I brushed it off and glanced at Kene.

“Do you think it’s a requirement of being powerful to make dramatic entrances and exits? I mean, everyone I’ve run into with real power has felt the need to.”

Dusk nodded sagely and suggested that it was a limitation of breaking through to Arcanist.

“Probably,” Kene said with a snort. “Though Azalea wasn’t too bad. Maybe it’s the barrier to sixth gate, and that’s why my grandmother’s the way she is.”

I chuckled and waited as the line slowly but surely shuffled forwards through the single entrance portal.

“Why only one door sized portal?” I wondered aloud. “Surely the worldspirit could make a bigger portal.”

I almost asked Dusk if she could, but instead, I just glanced at her, as if asking for her opinion. She shifted and let out a complex whistle, saying that she didn’t think it was the spirit’s power to make a portal that was the issue, it was the wards that had been set up defining the space.

“That makes sense,” Kene said. “How many people do you think will be turned away by them for breaking through to third gate early?”

“Nobody’s that stupid,” I said, and Kene smirked at me.

“Well, it seems like I’ll win the bet, then.”

“We haven’t even wagered anything,” I protested.

“Unfortunate that you lose and now owe me a blank check,” Kene said with a dramatic sigh.

The line shuffled onwards, and eventually Kene was proven right, when a short, light haired girl bounced off the entrance. There was a bit of a commotion, and I could hear her protesting that it was absurd she should be punished for being too strong – did they know who her mother was?

It took only a moment for her to be whisked away, and the line started again. I was frankly impressed by the level of professionalism it took to get someone like that away so quickly.

As the line ticked onwards, it happened a few more times, but nothing of absurd note, until one incident, where the wards flashed a bright red color. The kid who’d tried to enter suddenly jerked and slumped to the floor, and smoke started billowing out of his every orifice.

The oily black smoke condensed into a roughly humanoid shape that glowed with powerful mental and death mana to my senses – an asomatous, and not a weak one like I’d contained.

The worldspirit drifted out of the entrance, and the two spirits squared off in midair. The asomatous lashed out with a blackish-purple spike that split the air, then turned to run, but the worldspirit moved quicker.

She caught the spike with one hand and dissolved it, then shot forwards and cut off the asomatous’ escape. The asomatous dove, but the worldspirit matched its dive at an equal pace. As she moved, magic began to build up in the air above her, swirling out in a roughly circular pattern.

The asomatous tried to flee west, but the circle engaged, and the asomatous was caught in a circle of glowing light. The worldspirit floated forwards and caught the asomatous in one hand, then used the other to shred apart the oily smoke until the air was completely clear once more.

While she’d fought, the line had slowed, but when the circle vanished and the worldspirit clapped, it started moving again, albeit slower at first, until the worldspirit had faded out of sight.

Eventually, Kene and I grew close to the front of the line, and I could feel my stomach twisting with nerves. Kene looked slightly pale, so I squeezed their hand as I watched the portal.

It was a swirling ring of rainbow color, rather than the clean and simple see-through portals that Dusk summoned, and that made me oddly anxious – what if the portal was just harvesting our souls or something? That was ridiculous, but as I plunged into the entry, I couldn’t help but worry.

The rainbow power swirled all around us, and before it spit us out, I felt something pull at me, trying to call me out in a different spot than the portal should normally release us.

It wasn’t forceful – I could shut it down, if I chose. But it was distinctly there.