Book 5, chapter 27

Reclining on the couch, Zee enjoyed some delicious pie, while she poured over her notes. She wasn't sure what the special occasion was, but she could never say no to peach pie. This was another reason why she loved Bastion. He always knew the best gifts.

Something was odd though. When he dropped off the pie early this morning, he looked upset at something. He had brushed off her questions with a playful laugh. He acted like it was nothing, but she could tell something was bothering him.

It was probably just one of the business deals going sour. He had looked exhausted, but he didn't look injured, so she pushed the concern to the back of her mind. If it was something he needed help with, he would tell her.

Stabbing her fork into the absolutely delicious pie, Zee turned the page, her eyes tracing over the diagrams. By now, her plans to open a gate by utilizing a ritual to help fuel and target the gate were coming along nicely.

If she had designed it correctly, this scheme would not only pass the final test of Master Garg, but it would also Knock the socks off master Anton.

It was technically an eight tier ritual, though it did have some elements of a ninth and a tenth tier ritual. Sourcing the components was a bit of a headache and nearly emptied her wallet, but she had them now. Bastion's auction house business was incredibly useful at times.

Zee was starting to see why it was extremely rare to see high-level ritualists. Not only was it prohibitively expensive, but it was also incredibly difficult. Not to mention just how rare knowledge of high tier rituals was. Anyone who had the knowledge guarded it with jealousy.

Zee really wished she would have known that before she put a ritual up for sale at the auction. 

In her spare time, she had been working on altering a few different rituals she had found in the living book.

Building them from scratch was still beyond her, but adjusting already established diagrams was well within her ability. Selling an eight tier ritual that simply gathered and stored energy shouldn't have been a big deal. She had been so wrong.

Bastion had been approached, threatened, bribed, and nearly stabbed by a few crazy people trying to find the seller of the ritual.

That was a learning experience, but also It was a mistake she wouldn't make again.

The money would be nice, but getting another target on her back was not on her list of things to do. 

Humming softly to herself, she poured over her notes to make sure it was all fresh in her mind.

One paper caught her eye. It was a crumpled, weathered paper that must have fallen out when she pulled her notes from her spatial storage. 

It was one of her first ever attempts to write out a ritual diagram. She could still see the disappointed sneer on the old geezer's face when she showed it to him.

By his own words, 'it was the most horrendous ritual to ever make an appearance in the galaxy. She would have been better off burning it, and throwing the ashes into the trash.'

A smile tugged at her lips. Tarnival might be a bit of a foul mouthed jerk ‌but she missed the old geezer. For a minute, she wondered where he was, and what he was doing? He was probably just hiding away in his library somewhere, reading his books.

Just as she had that thought, the living book bumped into a vase, and it crashed to the tile, shattering. Zee could only sigh. She could swear that the book was like a curious child. Though it had been acting a little weird lately.

When she first got the book it would have broken something, and then flapped away without a care. As of right now, she could see it flapping around the broken pieces of the vase, pushing at the pieces with its pages as if trying to put it back together.

It was actually kind of cute how it was trying to make up for its mistake.

She pushed aside the distractions, glancing at a handy array which displayed the time.

It was almost noon, and time to gather up her things. To give students proper time to recover and prepare, each end of the year test was held on a different day. 

Surprisingly it was Master Antons test being held first. Zee had spent more than one sleepless night preparing for this.

Opening a stable gate that a person could walk through was no small thing. And, she had plans for something far bigger than that. Passing the course itself didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, what did matter was learning to open and target a spatial gate.

Having someone to teach her was beyond valuable and she didn't want to miss out on this opportunity. 

Checking all of her gathered papers to make sure she had all of her notes, Zee left.

She was nervous and a bit excited at the same time. 

At a brisk pace, it took just under ten minutes to reach Anton's classroom. Zee had a, I'm extremely busy look on her face, so thankfully no one approached her. Still, that didn't stop the hushed whispers of the students she passed.

Even with seven days since the war council, her actions there were still hot gossip. Everything from her yellow dress, to her essentially calling Draveroc a treasonous coward.

It was hard to say what the general stance was, but one thing was sure. She had just as many admirers as she did haters.

Bastion had even joked that he saw some kids running around in bright yellow. One of them even had even dyed their hair red.

Bass was probably just teasing, but the idea of kids idolizing her was still disconcerting. 

The door to the Antons's classroom swung open, and she entered. Like always, she walked past the stage and lectern, making a B Line for the back row. 

Elvot was already in his seat, but he was fidgeting with a crystalline orb. His hair was a disheveled mess, and he had bags under his eyes.

"Is everything alright Elvot?" Zee asked, taking a seat. His shoulders slumped as he glanced over. 

"Ya, everything's fine," Elvot replied softly.

His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like he hadn't slept in days.

"Are you worried about the test?" Zee probed.

"No, the test is not a big deal. It's something else," Elvot replied evasively. 

"I am going to be honest here, Elvot. You look like shit. Tell me what's wrong, and maybe I can help," Zee said.

He rested his face in his hands, rubbing at the morning shadow on his face. Looking absolutely miserable he spoke.

"I have been conscripted," Elvot replied. 

Zee raised an eyebrow. 

"You, conscripted?" Zee asked.

He nodded, looking miserable.

She furrowed her brows.

"But you are not a fighter. In fact, if I had to choose between you and a one legged lizard winning a fight, I would choose the lizard," Zee said.

"That's not very nice, but not entirely false, either. I don't have any combat skills. I am a spatial cultivator, that's all. I can't even wield a sword well enough not to hurt myself," Elvot said.

Zee gave the young man her best comforting smile.

"Have you considered that being a spatial cultivator is probably why they want you? You are the best spatial cultivator in our class by far. They probably want you to help jump the war ships and operate the arrays. You won't have to participate directly in combat at all," Zee said.

The others in the room must have been listening in, as one of them piped up.

"So we won't be forced to fight?" The woman asked hopefully.

Zee gave the bronze skinned woman a shrug, noting that everyone's eyes were on her.

"None of you are combat cultivators. You would just be fodder if you were placed on the front lines. No, spatial cultivators are rare. Not only that, but all of you here are talented in your own right. You will doubtlessly be placed aboard the warships of the navy, and trained under their transportation specialists," Zee said.

Another student near the front row chimed in, "What about you?" 

Zee gave the slightly overweight man a once over. Based on the last few months, she knew that he was quite skilled with spatial manipulation. 

After taking a moment to gather her thoughts she replied. "I will be fighting the enemy on the front lines," Zee said. The rest of the class shared uneasy glances.

"Does that not terrify you?" One asked.

"I guess so. War is a scary thing. My friends could die, or be seriously wounded," Zee replied. 

"Do you not fear for your own life?" Elvot asked from his chair beside her.

Zee could only shrug.

"Death is a constant companion in war. I accept that one day I may die, but in the meantime, I do my best to avoid that outcome," Zee said.

Elvot and the others looked uneasy at her words, but the door swung open, cutting off further conversation. 

Master Anton strode in, wearing an absurdly wide brimmed hat, a floral shirt, silk pants cut at the knees and sandals.

He looked ridiculous, like he had just come back from a tropical island. 

He climbed on the stage and paused by the lectern, speaking without preamble. "Good afternoon everyone. Since you are all here, we might as well get started.

Miranda, come up on stage and show us what you can do," Anton said. 

The bronze skinned girl who had asked Zee a question earlier stood, and nervously walked down the aisle, climbing onto the stage next to Anton after a reassuring nod.

She placed one end of the anchor stone at the left side of the stage Miranda held the other end on the right side. 

Anton smiled. "Good. Now, whenever you are ready, open the gate. Do not step through, simply open the gate, and keep it open," Anton said.

The young woman looked just as nervous as Zee felt. Miranda nodded, and Zee felt spatial energy gathering. It started as a micro gate the size of her pinky nail, then expanded. In only a few seconds, the gate was the size of her head. 

It kept growing rapidly, all the while trembling ever so slightly.

Zee was reminded yet again that she was in a room filled with prodigies. Only the best of the best could get in this class, and that showed as Miranda opened her gate to full size in just under five minutes. 

To put that into perspective, it took the portal specialist for Othera around five minutes. The fact that Miranda could do it as quickly as a first year, and while only being middle E grade, spoke to her talent. 

Anton gave the young woman a pleased smile.

"Good job Miranda. You will need to work on stabilizing the gate better, but overall, this is acceptable," Anton said.

Miranda looked incredibly relieved, but also curious.

"Is it safe to step through?" Miranda asked.

"It's safe enough. Go on, step through," Anton urged.

Taking a deep breath, Miranda did so. One moment she was on the right, and the next she was stepping out of the left gate. 

The woman staggered and clutched at her head, looking a bit sick.

With an amused nod, Anton turned to the class.

"Just look at her sorry state. That is the direct cause of instability in her gate. It is not life threatening, but it is extremely uncomfortable. Miranda, I would urge you to work on stabilizing your gate better in the future. Now, Denick, you are next. Come up here," Anton ordered. 

It appeared Anton was choosing people at random. Denick performed slightly worse than Miranda, but also a bit better than Polov. Gradually, one student after another was chosen, with several failing to perform to expectation.

They couldn't make the gate stabilize, or even in one case, couldn't form the gate at all. Elvot was not one of these people. He outshined everyone in the class, taking only a minute and forty seconds to open a stable set of gates. The fidgety Elvot made everyone else look slow in comparison.

Zee was happy to see him succeed, but she could swear master Anton saved her for last. 

She was fidgeting in her chair when he finally called her name.

"Zee, come up here. Let's get this over with so I can go," Anton said in a bored tone. Everyone watched as she walked down the aisle and stood on the stage. She had planned this for months, and even spent a boatload of money on her plan. She really hoped it wasn't all a waste.

She placed one half of her anchor stone on one end of the stage and held the other. The stones were a perfect replica of each other, having been a sphere that was cut in half. 

"Whenever you are ready," Anton said. 

Wiping a sweaty hand on her uniform, she took a deep, steadying breath. 

Time to begin. Small cracks appeared in her aura, and streamers of energy leaked out. They flowed into complex constructs of energy with speed and precision. 

It was like she had eyes in the back of her head as the energy constructs formed where she couldn't possibly see them. This was possible due to her spatial ripple skill giving omni directional sight. It allowed her to see, and hear things around her, but also sense energy.

As it formed, the constructs that made up the ritual diagram were like dim lights In her mind. She could sense them all clearly, and even tell where they were in relation to each other.

Even Anton was impressed by the speed and precision she was showcasing.

He wasn't sure how a ritual would help her open a stable gate, but he was curious.

In under a minute, the ritual diagram snapped into place.

Sweat beaded on her neck, but she didn't falter. Reaching into her uniform, she pulled out nine separate pieces of clay brick. Each was covered in etchings, carefully designed by Dern to gather and stabilize spatial energy. 

Splitting her focus, Zee carefully guided the nine clay bricks forwards with her aura.

It took most of her effort not to crush the fragile tiles, as she used her aura to arrange them into a circular pattern in the air.

The tiles were the anchor for the gate, and would contain its size, and help power it once it was open. 

Making sure they were all in place was an incredibly stressful endeavor. Her hands shook a little bit as she grabbed the catalyst for this hair brained plan. 

It was the shard of a powerful beast king, called a crypt mistress, the strongest monster she had killed back in the death chasms. It was a particularly terrifying monster, one that had given her a nasty scar on her chest. 

Nearby, Anton's eyes bulged as she flooded the fist sized beast shard with energy, and threw it forward into the hovering circle.

There was a loud crack like breaking glass, and a whooshing sound, as a dark gray spatial vortex opened. 

Anton was confident in himself, but the moment that gate opened, his confidence fled. A wild, primal energy, one bent on the destruction of the universe, flooded out.

The abyss called to him, it was like the portal was opening its gaping maw to welcome all inside.

Sensing the danger, Anton reacted immediately. Before Zee could even blink, a spatial barrier wrapped around the gateway, throwing Zee off the stage.

The abyssal gate had already eaten through her containment arrays, and was expanding. 

He didn't have time to worry about throwing her to crash into the far wall. She was a combat cultivator and would be fine. 

In the meantime, he had to contain this gate, and fast. If the gate wasn't suffocated in its cradle, it would become a calamity. Zee slammed into the wall with enough force to knock the breath from her and make plaster fall from the roof.

Being thrown across the room hurt, but not overly so.

Pushing herself to her feet, she blinked at the sight on the stage. Master Anton had an expression that could only be fear on his face, as terrifying amounts of spatial energy radiated from his body. 

A dense spatial barrier wrapped her gate on the stage, a gate that, for some reason, looked much different than intended. Instead of the calm, pale blue hues of spiritual energy, it was a deep, ominous gray hue, bordering on black.

The gate roiled, and as if alive, it lashed out at Anton's spatial barrier with a horrifying sparking sound. The longer she stared, the more her concern grew, as large cracks spread along Anton's barrier. 

The entire academy started shaking as a wayward spark from the growing gateway lashed out. The wisp of energy broke right through Anton's barrier and punched a person-sized hole in the ceiling.

"Everyone out, now! I can't hold it alone," Anton shouted.

Just then, the door exploded into millions of fragments of wood. Zee caught only the barest glimpse of master Fier as he entered. Right behind him was the headmaster, master Jorgun, Master Garg, and several others she vaguely recognized. They were all instructors and the lowest of them was peak D grade. As expected of people with such a lofty rank they moved with shocking speed. Even so, Fier made them all look like they were standing still. 

An incredibly sharp domain filled the room, as Fier unleashed his kingdom of blades. It was condensed Will, so sharp it could rip apart a beast emperor. 

Zee had heard such a thing was possible, but not even Julain had this kind of skill with a sword.

Like an army going to war, his kingdom of blades wrapped around Anton's barrier, forming a second layer of protection. As if to show it wouldn't be cowed so easily, the shimmering portal roiled and sparked. Much to everyone's concern both layers of defence cracked, trembling ominously.

The other instructors fanned out, forming a circle around the growing gate.

They each unleashed their own power to help restrain the swirling gate. A field of vibrant trees sprung up to enclose the gate as the headmaster clasped his hands together. 

Master Garg flapped its batlike wings, and an expansive ritual diagram enclosed the entire stage in a shimmering golden barrier. 

Jorgun's aura blanketed the room, wrapping all the students in a comforting embrace. Being wrapped in the protective aura was a huge relief.

Just because the instructors were allies didn't mean she was protected from their skills. Rampant surges of energy from their skills activating could just as easily hurt her and the others as the ominous gate could.

Thankfully, the instructors were well aware just how fragile the E grade cultivators in their midst were. 

"What madness have you gotten us into this time Anton?" Fier asked in a surprisingly calm voice.

Anton scowled, adjusting his ridiculous wide-brimmed hat. "Why are you blaming me? It's not even my fault," Anton retorted.

Fier gave him a deadpan stare. "So you say, if not yours, whose fault is it?" Fier asked.

Anton pointed a finger at Zee as the layered barriers shook ominously. "I was Julian's granddaughter. I knew I shouldn't have let that lunatics kin anywhere near my classroom," Anton said.

The headmaster gave Anton a reproachful glance. "We can throw the blame around later. How do we close this thing down?" The headmaster asked.

Anton wiped beads of sweat from forehead. 

"It's a gate to the abyssal plane. We need to starve it out. It's absorbing ambient energy from the world river to grow. All we need to do is cut off its supply of energy and it will fizzle out," Anton replied.

The headmaster nodded.

"Master Garg. Would you please construct a ritual to isolate the portal from the world river?" the headmaster asked in a calm voice. 

"I will get right in it, headmaster," the Coilateen replied. 

Flying in a circle around the barrier enclosed gate, master Garg set to work. Layer upon layer of energy constructs blossomed into existence, making Zee's earlier display appear like child's play.

Zee had come a long way over the past few years, but she was reminded yet again just how far she had to go. 

Her train of thought was rudely interrupted as she realized everyone was staring at her. With the gate seemingly contained, everyone including the headmaster was looking at her.

She glanced down at herself, noting some plaster on her rumpled gray uniform, but nothing else of note. 

"What are you all looking at?" Zee asked.

It was the headmaster who responded.

"You have a lot to explain for young lady," 

The other instructors in the room all nodded in agreement. 

She let out a nervous laugh.

"It was an accident," Zee said unconvincingly.

Anton narrowed his eyes on her.

"That was no accident. You can't just open a gate to the abyssal plane by accident," Anton replied incredulously.

Zee raised both hands to hopefully calm them down.

"It was an accident, I swear. The catalyst was supposed to help connect to the spirit realm, and not the abyss," Zee replied. 

"Why were you even using a catalyst or a ritual in the first place? Neither was necessary to pass the test," Anton said.

"I wanted to impress you by opening a stable gateway to the spirit plane," Zee said, her cheeks burning in embarrassment. 

"A dimensional gate? In your first year, are you insane?" Anton asked in an incredulous tone.

Zee quickly reached into her uniform, pulling out a stack of parchment from her spatial necklace.

"You can read my notes if you don't believe me. The whole process is here. It should have worked, but something must have gone wrong," Zee said.

Anton didn't look convinced, but he took the notes, anyway. As he started rifling through them, his angry expression changed to a thoughtful one, then incredulous.

"This is madness! Have you learned nothing in my class, or are you just suicidal?" Anton asked, as though genuinely curious. 

Behind her incredulous instructor, the headmaster loudly cleared his throat. 

"Anton, would you care to enlighten us?" The headmaster asked.

Anton ran a palm down his face.

"From what I can tell, our resident maniac over there combined a volatile ritual with a beast king shard, using it as a catalyst to open a gate. It actually is quite good work," he looked over a few more of the pages.

"Now that I am looking at it, I don't see how this could have opened a gate to the abyss," Anton said, his anger fading by the second, replaced by confusion.

The headmaster sighed.

"So, you don't know what went wrong?" The headmaster asked.

"Not exactly.. Based on her notes, it should have opened a rift to the spiritual plane," Anton said thoughtfully.

"Any ideas as to what went wrong?" the headmaster asked.

Anton furrowed his brow, his wide hat bobbing on his head, "Hey, Garg. Come look at this, I need your expertise on the ritual diagram she used," Anton said.

Nearby, Garg had already finished the ritual to strangulate her gate, and flapped over.

Hovering above Anton's shoulder, the floating heads' numerous eye stalks peered down at her work.

Garg looked it over, humming thoughtfully. In a completely dry, bored tone, Garg spoke.

"The ritual itself seems adequate for the task. It had some slight errors, though not anything that would alter the target from the spiritual plane to the abyss." Swiveling in the air, Garg turned its eye stalks on her.

"What kind of monster did you acquire the catalyst from?" Garg asked. 

Zee cocked her head, wondering why that mattered.

"It was a monster called a crypt mistress. I killed it in the death chasms last year. I figured it was extremely powerful, so its shard should be more than enough to open the gate," Zee replied.

Garg bobbed in the air.

"Ahhh, I see. That explains it," Garg said.

"Do share," the headmaster urged.

"Well, it's quite obvious. A crypt mistress is a lesser monster with its progenitor said to hail from the abyss. Using its shard as a catalyst would undoubtedly taint the ritual and the arrays with the primal energies within. That would be more than enough to target the abyssal plane," Garg said in the same dry tone it always used.

"Soo, it was a mistake then?" The headmaster nodded. He glanced up at the hole in the roof, to the damaged stage, the cracked wall, and then to Zee. He continued,"It appears you have done quite a number on the academy. Not to mention opening an sanctioned abyssal gate in the capitol.

Normally, such an act would get you arrested and imprisoned for the rest of your life. But, considering the circumstances, and the fact we contained it before it got out of hand, I will write this up as a training accident. Don't ever do it again, Viotti, or next time, you will doubtless hear directly from the emperor." Zee swallowed hard at those reproachful words. 

The headmaster turned back to Anton.

"She is not the only one at fault here. Anton, this is your class. You need to be more mindful of what your students are doing. Next time, make your students show you their plans before you let them open a gate," the headmaster said in a reproachful tone.

With that, the headmaster whirled on his heel, and stormed out, muttering obscenities under his breath. Zee knew she was in for a very uncomfortable and public scolding in front of her classmates when Anton turned back to her. Well, this hadn't gone as well as she had hoped.

She had royally screwed up, and now had to suffer the cost of her actions.

All things said and done, getting publicly scolded was still better than nearly freezing to death in the Tundra, or nearly getting eaten by eldridge abomination in Null.