Many months passed, but the atmosphere in the Tower only became more defeatist. Hazael’s unsuccessful attempt at leapfrogging his capacity had ended in permanent loss of magic. Before this, he had been the most promising student in his class. Now, he had returned home to be reevaluated.

  Evaluation, I had learned, was the most pivotal moment in a person’s life. From this unfair starting point most only improved as much as the growth of their body allowed. This was especially true for Mages, who had no reliable way to increase their capacity—unlike Knights, who could largely grind their way toward improved constitution, strength, dexterity, and skill.

  The war wasn’t faring any better either. Word was that the enemy Kingdom of Volck had deployed an army of giant humanoid golems they were using to push our organic front back. If they physically reached the shield with their full force, it would, in fact, be over for us.

  I needed to become a lot stronger.

  I had been trying to disconnect from the grid without it being shut down by Master since the incident.

  The theory was simple: stop the flow of my magic into the grid entirely so it throws me out.

  The practicality was entirely different. I could only practice this in the last ten minutes of my sessions. If I provided low output throughout, it would only make the session last longer and annoy Master.

  I visualized a dam across the nadis my magic flowed through. This helped reduce the flow significantly, but the grid had its own mechanism. It behaved like a whirlpool. Magic wanted to move toward it.

  It pulled relentlessly.

  The breakthrough came today when I created a wall around my core itself. This meant the grid could only pull from the magic already circulating through my body—and it did.

  My vision dimmed.

  I brought all my focus to maintaining the walls around my core. Every instinct screamed to release them.

  The grid demanded flow.

  My soul demanded autonomy.

  Those couple minutes were the greatest test of my dedication it.

  I had to pass.

  The moment the circulating magic ran dry, the pull vanished.

  I collapsed when the grid stopped holding me upright. Disconnected.

  On my knees, breathless, I felt triumph.

  Agnes came rushing forward and picked me up immediately.

  “What went wrong…?” she asked, already casting recovery spells without waiting for an answer.

  I didn’t need to reply. Master did it for me.

  “Deliberately stopping the flow of magic to force disconnection,” he said calmly. “You’re a clever child. How did you do it?”

  So he noticed.

  Of course he did.

  The question was how much he understood.

  “I didn’t…” I whimpered, forcing tears into my voice. The lingering pain made it believable.

  “I will take her to her room now,” Agnes said firmly.

  Master allowed it.

  She had me on bedrest for the rest of the day. I enjoyed fruits and porridge while planning my next step.

  Night fell and I was alone.

  The hexagonal shield shimmered endlessly outside my window. I felt connected to it now. My magic ran through it. Sustained and strengthened it.

  Another distant impact rippled across its surface.

  I felt the echoes of magic answering the strike.

  Knock. Knock.

  The handle turned before I replied.

  Keiran stepped inside.

  He looked more tired than I remembered. Less the general prince. More the fourteen-year-old boy running out of options.

  “I heard you collapsed again…” he began.

  I didn’t know why he would care when there was so much more going on.

  “I’m fine now,” I replied, hopping out of bed and doing jumping jacks.

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  That earned me a small smile.

  “We need your strength more than ever now, Mira. The attacks have more than doubled this past week.”

  I nodded. “I heard about the golems…”

  “We will launch a full strike soon. They will never reach you here.”

  He promised it so easily.

  “My father is at the front,” I said.

  I had never met the man. Still, Mumma and my brothers deserved better than for him to die senselessly.

  If anyone could change something, it was him.

  “I know,” Keiran replied evenly. “He’s a brilliant Knight.”

  He avoided what I was actually asking.

  “Let me do more than powering the shields,” I said. “I’ve been studying. I have a way to defeat the golems.”

  “You’re a brilliant kid, Mira—but these golems… it isn’t so simple.”

  There was no mockery. Making the dismissal feel worse.

  I removed the armlet.

  Magic surged freely. The channel highways wide and clear as a result of months of practice.

  I communed with Air wordlessly through instincts alone. It compressed protectively into translucent hexagonal shield around my body with a similar construction to the larger ones I powered daily.

  “Attack me,” I said.

  He hesitated only briefly before striking.

  A burst of mana slammed into the barrier.

  It held.

  A strike of lightening. Diffused.

  Multiple rapid strikes of blasts of mana hit me my shield repeatedly and dismantled.

  I stood breathing evenly. The air was my friend now. We were one thought.

  “Do you see now?” I asked. “I can protect myself.”

  He exhaled slowly.

  “Fair,” he admitted. “But do you have a plan for golems?”

  “It’s true I haven’t seen one,” I said. “But I heard they’re twenty feet tall and made of interlocking stone.”

  I explained my idea.

  The macro and micro of using air magic, precision and loads of power to destroy a golem.

  He refined my ideas.

  By the time we finished, his eyes were wide open.

  “You really believe you can pull this off?”

  “My power makes up for my lack of knowledge,” I had to be confident. This was an asymmetric bet and there were a million things that could go wrong. I had no choice but to give it my all.

  He didn’t laugh but when he left, but he looked more resolved than he came in.

  Keiran kept his word.

  Agnes walked beside me, tense but resolved. Ever the healer protector her hand never left my shoulder.

  The shield perimeter opened briefly to allow passage.

  The battlefield smelled like faintly of iron and dust. Even before we arrived, the tremors reminded us of where exactly we were going.

  Knights surrounded us immediately. Their armor looked polished as if they had only come here just before us.

  One of them froze when he noticed me.

  “…Your Highness,” he said carefully, eyes flicking between Keiran and me. “Why is this child here?”

  Keiran did not slow his stride.

  “She is under my authority.”

  The knight stepped forward anyway.

  “With respect, Commander—this is a battlefield. Bringing a child—”

  Keiran stopped.

  The entire escort halted with him. They stood tall, silent and disciplined.

  The prince turned slowly.

  There were no signs of fear or exhaustion in his frame now. He was now the commander. The only authority they answered to.

  “I am aware of where we are,” he said evenly. “And I am aware of what she is.”

  The knight hesitated, but pressed on.

  “If something happens to her, the shield—”

  “—will fall,” Keiran finished calmly.

  The man faltered.

  Keiran’s voice hardened.

  “You were briefed on her evaluation metrics.”

  “…Yes, Commander.”

  “S-Tier Mage. With more intelligence than more than half the active duty Knights.”

  The knight no longer seemed confident.

  Keiran stepped closer. His voice now kind and understanding.

  “Do not make the mistake of confusing appearance with capability.”

  “Now do you plan to continue challenging command needlessly?”

  The knight straightened instantly.

  “No, Commander.”

  “Then get back to your formation.”

  With the Knights mollified, the matter ended. Now, they would watch what I can do.

  Agnes’s hand tightened slightly on my shoulder as we advanced to the frontline.

  That’s I saw the battlefield,

  Thousands of Knights and Mages positioned in complicated coordinated formations trying.

  And beyond them—

  The golems.

  Towering over everyone.

  Twenty feet was an understatement.

  Massive humanoid constructs of interlocking stone plates moved with horrifying inevitability. Their every step was tens of elephants marching at once. Arrows shattered harmlessly against their invulnerable exterior. Spells detonated across their bodies barely chipping at the stone.

  Hundreds of mages worked together, trying to binding their limbs with glowing restraints. It only slowed their advances inch by inch.

  Every time one nearly fell, another pushed forward.

  The ground shook constantly.

  A golem swung its arm.

  An entire defensive line scattered.

  Screams and magic flaring uselessly.

  Knights formed a protective barrier around us.

  Keiran stood besides me, sword drawn.

  Agnes raised layered barriers around us.

  “You stay behind us,” she said sharply.

  All I could focus on were the joints. The seams and the gaps where stone didn’t touch stone. Air pockets.

  My heart pounded—but not from fear. I was certain of my plan. Keiran and I had discussed the minutiae endlessly.

  I focused my attentions on the Air around me, opening a line of communication so we could become one in will and action.

  The battlefield was roaring. The stone giants were advancing—unaware and unbothered by my intentions—for now.

  Vayu had agreed to help me and I was ready to bring them all down at once.