“You didn’t think that all of the challenges would be illusions, did you?” the asomatous possessing Travis’ body asked, a dark chuckle burbling out of his lips. “Oh no. The sage was wise. He knew that he needed to test your skills, both in simulations, and for real.”

Dusk leapt down from my shoulder and slapped her palm on the ground, spinning her mana into a strange bird skull – the spirit trap that Kene’s grandmother had given her. The power surged up, trying to rip the asomatous from it’s body, but the Asomatous was strong. Fourth gate, judging by its mana. The fact it was able to take possession of someone suggested that it was higher, but if so, it was incredibly skilled at veiling. I was betting that it was a fourth gate, using a combination of its full gate spell, legacy, and dominion in order to possess Travis, while also resisting the pull of the spirit trap.

If it really was fifth gate, then there would be nothing I could do at all.

But if it wasn’t…

I connected my mind to Dusk, reaching out for the network of gourds that hung in my oldest Red Star tree.

I hadn’t had much reason to use my Spirit Gourds for a bit. Spirits-Walk had passed by, and the restless dead had quieted. The ones I’d found in the competition, I’d been able to lay to rest properly, so I’d not needed to store them. And in the odd case we had needed to, the trap that Kene’s grandmother had given Dusk had been more than sufficient.

As such, my Spirit Gourds, much like the rest of my plants, had languished at second gate.

That wouldn’t do now.

I sent life and death mana surging into Enhance Plant Life, targeting the power structures within the gourd. With my full gate spells transforming my magic into a blend of mana and energy, it connected with far more ease than it ever had before, the conversion smooth and quick.

That was good, because I needed to pour a lot of power in.

On my shoulder, I felt Dusk reaching out and doing the same, her power joining mine, not unlike how it had when we’d combined our power to release the blademoss.

Power poured into the gourd, and I felt it growing near a barrier, but before we could break through, Travis moved.

His Auric Haste spell condensed around him as he formed a pair of aura blades around either hand and launched forward, swinging right at me.

I teleported back, feeling a slight groan as my Magister’s Body, tired from pouring energy into the gourd, protested.

Before Travis could swing again, Kene stepped in the way of the strike. Kene’s blue defensive aura met Travis’ blade, and there was a moment of silence. Both had put a lot of effort and power into their respective attack and defense, and neither could overwhelm the other.

Until a pair of Bluelight Fangs forged themselves out of Siobhan’s mana and bit down on Travis.

He dropped the haste spell, transforming it into thick armor plating, and layering a shield over it, which was enough to stop the fangs from biting into him, but not enough to stop them from lifting him off his feet and shaking him around like a chew toy.

As he spun, Liz completed the spell she’d been sketching, but seemingly did nothing. She grimaced and focused, but Travis managed to slip out of Siobhan’s jaws.

His motions were jerkier now, less like a person possessed, and more like a puppet being pulled around on its strings, but he was still unmistakably in the thrall of the Asomatous.

“Primes,” Liz swore. “I can’t crack into its mind, its defenses are way too strong!”

A mental attack? I guess it did make sense – desolation could throw about any type of attack spell. It just wasn’t what I’d expected from Liz.

“Keep it up!” I shouted. “We’ve almost got it!”

And we did. Breaking through the barrier was hard, since it took four times the amount of power that gourd had already contained, but with Dusk efforts and my own, we were almost there. Almost…

With Liz putting pressure on the Aomatous’ mind, it would be forced to split its attention between that, avoiding the normal spirit trap, and the gourd.

Travis swung a blade down at Dusk’s spirit trap, trying to destroy it, but Kene and Siobhan grabbed his hand, their defensive magic pushing him back. Kene started to glow with his spell resistance magic, which wove together with his tattoos in order to grow even stronger.

For just a second, the light in Travis’ eyes flickered, on the verge of going out.

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Then several things happened in very swift succession.

Dusk and I completed our work, and the gourd broke through to third gate. Together, we pulled it from her realm and thrust it forwards, unleashing its draw on the elemental.

A needle thin beam of aura, Travis’ finishing move, a third gate spell that rivaled a Fireball for power, lanced out of his eyes like a laser.

It caught everyone entirety by surprise, and if I hadn’t stepped over to hold up the gourd at his face, it would have struck me dead in the chest. As it was, I was closer and slightly to the side, so it ripped through my left shoulder. I felt a flash of pain unlike anything I’d ever felt before, and teleported almost on instinct.

That also saved my life, as the beam of aura swept up , and would have gone right into my head had I not.

Then Liz shouted, and the power attacking the mind of the Asomatous redoubled. It lost its grip on Travis, and with a sound like goop being pushed down a funnel, schlorped into the spirit gourd I’d dropped when my shoulder had been lanced through.

Then a power stronger than any of us released the Asomatous from its prison. For a half a second, the only thought running through my mind was that Idyll was trying to kill us.

Spatial magic flickered, and we were pulled into the next challenge.

That was the last thing I saw before things started to go black.

I awoke to find myself laying in bed, inside

My shoulder felt… Better.

Not good.

But better.

I sat up, and realized one of my arms was in a sling, and I was unable to move it much at all.

“Your scapula was… Well, let’s just say, it’s a good thing that his beam is so thin,” Kene’s voice said from the side. I looked up to see him sitting in a chair next to me, spells leaking from his hands and into my flesh.

“Why?” I asked, morbidly curious.

“A needle-thin beam like that left it mostly fractured and broken,” Kene said. “Only a tiny amount of bone was actually missing, which the beam punched out. If it had been an inch or so across, I would have had to regrow the bone entirely, which isn’t something I’m able to do. As is, I fused it back together the best I could, but the bone is still tender.”

“Thank you,” I said, and Kene smiled at me.

“Hey, at least it’s not your spirit this time, right?”

I grinned back, and then tilted my head.

“Where are Liz and Traivs?” I asked.

“We’ve been in a scenario for the better part of two days,” Kene informed me. “It’s a desert survival challenge. It would be hard for most mages, I think, who brought food but no water. But with Dusk…”

She piped up from the nightstand, saying since she had a lake and small rivers full of water, it kind of negated the challenge.

“They’ve been trying to find the exit to the challenge,” Kene explained. “Figured that since you were taking the time to recover, there was no sense in not saving one of our free passes.”

“Makes sense,” I said, nodding as I got out of bed. I wrinkled my nose.

“I stink,” I said.

“The sweat of sleep and healing,” Kene said. “Here, I’ll show you how to take off your sling, then go shower. Just don’t use that arm!”

“Yes doctor,” I said, waggling my eyebrows. I was tempted to joke further, but dropped it when I saw the serious look on Kene’s face.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“Do… Do you want help dressing?” Kene eventually asked. “It’s hard to do with one hand, and it’s easier if I help, but I understand why it might be uncomfortable for me to help.”

I hadn’t actually thought about how I was going to get dressed until he’d pointed it out, and now that he had, I felt my brain run through a thousand scenarios at once.

What if they hated the way I looked? The way I’d been born?

It was stupid, I knew that. But just because I knew it didn’t mean I didn’t worry. And I felt… Ashamed wasn’t the right word, but it was the best one to come to mind.

“I…” I said.

“I don’t have to,” Kene said. “I promise, there will be no offense or anger or issues between us if you say no.”

I believed him with my conscious brain, but my subconscious brain didn’t. Of course there would be issues. It wasn’t like Kene wouldn’t see me eventually, or hadn’t gotten small glimpses, but this was… different. More intimate.

My spells had helped a lot. They’d shrunk my chest more in the initial transformation than a sports bra could, but I wasn’t perfectly content with my form either.

I let out a long, slow breath.

“You can help,” I said. It would be uncomfortable for me, and maybe for Kene too, but I thought that it was important.

“You can change your mind whenever,” Kene said, and I nodded. They helped me out of the sling, and a while later, I emerged from Dusk’s realm fully dressed and armored, to find myself in a desert.

Hot, sandy, windy.

Yep, this checked all the boxes of being a desert, at least to me. I glanced around, waiting to see if I could spot anything, but other than some birds way overhead, there wasn’t much.

“Liz and Travis have cleared out this area pretty well,” Kene explained. “The whole place was swarming with monsters. They think they’re supposed to find their way out of the desert while keeping the monsters at bay, and managing your mana levels and water amounts.”

“Makes sense. That would be a decently hard challenge,” I agreed.

We hung out for a while, heading back into Dusk’s realm, but leaivng the portal open. I was incredibly hungry after the healing, and so we broke into the stores of real food in order to bake a bit more bread, and I made a sandwich, heaped with meats and dried cheeses.

It needed a sauce to pull things together – no doubt, Bohn would have suggested a chocolate sauce or something – but I was so hungry that it almost didn’t matter.

Liz and Travis arrived a few hours later, and Travis walked up to me, extending a hand.

“Sorry about that,” he said. “The asomatous was doing all sorts of weird things to my head, and it somehow forced me to rive my aura beam spell.”

I took his hand and shook it.

“No hard feelings,” I said with a small smile.

But even as I said it, I felt the winds of fortune blow violently in my spirit, shaking my entire mana-garden like a leaf on the wind.

I paused, but didn’t let the smile slip off my face.

“I’m glad you’re okay,” Liz said, bumping my hip with hers. I smiled and nodded.

“So what’s next?” I asked the group, and Liz patted me on my shoulder – my good shoulder, thankfully.

We’ve found that there’s a door in each of the cardinal directions, and we figure it leads to the next challenge. North door is white, and icey cold to the touch. South door is red and burning hot. The eastern door is green and warm, but not hot. And the western door is blue, and feels squishy.”