As soon as I was through the doorway, the flames receded, and I once more felt my mana being blocked, much like in Conflict's trial. Yet the forest didn't block the enhancements to my mind. Maybe it couldn't, or maybe only mana would interfere with whatever improvements the trial would give us.

The green flame I'd stepped through clung to my skin for a second before fading into near-invisibility. It didn't burn, but I could feel it there, like a second skin. Wasn’t certain, but thought the flames might represent Tender’s version of Kinya.

The forest I stepped into almost reminded me of Mistvale. A lot of the plant life was similar, though the trees were a lot smaller than the behemoths near the Waygate I was used to.

Probably for the best, since the red lilies seemed to lead higher and higher into the forest canopy. I considered the other paths for the moment, noting the winding route the white lotus took upward.

The red lilies weren’t too difficult to follow, at least at first. Just pull myself up a branch, then step over to the next, and so on.

It was actually kinda fun.

I'd been going for several minutes before the gap between trees reached a point that I couldn't simply step over. Still, there was plenty of branches to balance on, so I made a quick hop, and found myself on the next.

Again, this continued for a few more minutes, and I was having fun once more, climbing higher with relative ease.

Then I made the mistake of looking down.

While the original trees I'd started on were normal in size, at some point they'd graduated to the big boys. I'd been having so much fun, I hadn't even noticed. And I was in the upper reaches of the massive trees.

In most places, I couldn't actually see the ground, the canopy below was so thick. But where I'd stopped, there was a gap. Only about six feet.

Six feet from where I was standing to the next branch wreathed in red lilies.

And nothing but open air all the way down.

If Tender hadn't told us that we'd survive, I probably wouldn't have attempted it.

It was far from my most graceful jump, but I landed well enough. Wasn't too pleased when I realized I had to repeat the maneuver.

My progress slowed to a crawl as I leapt from tree to tree, always over a several hundred foot drop. After ten or so minutes, I ran out of new places to leap to.

Instead, there were tightly packed branches with lilies leading down and around the tree. At first, the descent was easy, though it soon picked up in difficulty, requiring me to squeeze between tighter and tighter spaces.

Then, less than ten feet from the surface, the lilies switched over to growing on vines.

"Always wanted to play Tarzan," I chuckled, jumping forward and swinging my way forward. As I swung, I realized all my time in Tetherfall must've been making a difference, cause I tore through that part of the trial in no time, even after it started requiring me to let go and catch the next.

With a final swing, I returned to the forest floor. The red lilies led up a bunch of crumbling gravel. Took me a moment to figure out that I had to charge up. As soon as I hit the top, I had to slide down a similar slope on the other side.

The materials kept changing, though most were easier than the gravel.

Eventually, I reached a wooden wall covered in vines, full of dinosaur shaped holes. Several of the holes were at waist height, but most were over twice my height.

To the side, surrounded by several batches of red lilies, were dino shaped stones.

Once I figured out there were only five shapes, it went pretty quick, though getting the stones into the upper slots was pretty challenging. Only after I'd put them in did the veil of vines at the top part, revealing more red lilies.

The next section required me to weave vines together to use as ropes to ascend and descent. The ‘instructions’ had been laid out in several separate steps to one side.

For another half hour, I continued following the red lilies, as the challenges started to combine previous portions. The challenges never got harder, though they always seemed to test a new aspect of my coordination.

Finally, I reached a ring of red lilies looking down a half dozen feet. There were no more challenges. Just the door I'd come in. As I looked around, I realized that the green flames had faded. Seemed they’d been all used up.

Stepping out, I felt… well, nothing. It wasn't like with Conflict's trials. Whatever had happened, it'd been done while I'd been completing the obstacle course itself.

It had been… fun. I was honestly looking forward to coming back, though it was a bit of a shame that the course wouldn't change. Running it each day, months in a row, would cause a lot of the novelty to wear off. That’d be offset by the fact we’d be forging our bodies to be… more.

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As I looked around the room, I discovered I'd been the first to finish. With my magic restored, I cast Restore Form to clear my fatigue then plopped down in the empty chamber and started working through designs for trains. Now that Vaserra had the staff, being able to move food between our territories was going to be important.

There was a lot I could steal from Fang's designs, though there was even more that left untapped. I still hadn't gone to the protheum well where they dug up the crude they slung at us when we first attempted to parley with Balthum's men, but I did have the coordinates for it. Being able to add actual engines to our repertoire could be huge.

Or it might be a waste of time. Worth investigating at least.

It took another hour before Calbern emerged from his doorway. By that point, I was having a hard time working on anything.

It wasn't Calbern I'd been concerned about, it was Bevel. Her door had been just across from mine. Which I'd assumed to mean her challenge should've been the same.

If they had, she should've been out around the same time I was. Honestly, I'd figured she'd be faster.

While I was worried about her, I rushed over to where Calbern had slumped down as soon as I noticed he wasn't standing. When I got close, I found him smiling, though his perfect posture had abandoned him. "You okay old man?" I asked even as I kneeled down and sent a Restore Form through him. It didn't seem to do anything.

"Just recovering, master Percival. It was a rather bracing experience," he said, unable to keep the tired smile off his face. Then his eyes narrowed, as he searched the chamber. "Where is Lady Bevel? I had foreseen her completing her challenge prior to my own."

"Yeah, me too. No sign of her. Can't even see her through her door," I said, offering him a hand up.

"Best we be prepared for the worst," Calbern said. Despite his words, his voice cracked, and I could see moisture tugging at his eyes.

"Never should've let her enter," I said as we made our way towards the doorway.

"Nor I. If I had not been so taken with my own advancement…" Calbern trailed off as we came to a stop next to the door. We could each of the trails of flowers leading away from the door. My gaze fixed on the red lilies, following their ascent.

"The path looks near identical to the one I took," I said, as we sat down on the rough wooden floor together. "And if I could do it…"

Calbern didn't say anything, simply nodding.

I forced myself not to watch the door, pulling my notes out again. It was next to impossible to actually design anything. Instead, I found myself writing notes to her, much like I'd done after I'd thought I lost Nexxa.

It was then that I truly realized just how much she'd come to mean to me.

If she died in this trial, I'd never forgive myself. I wouldn't forgive Tender either. If Bevel died inside, I'd find a way to destroy the being.

Inside… I needed to get inside.

"Help me figure out if there's a way to follow her," I said, pushing to my feet as I started sweeping the edge of the doorframe with Reveal Magic. The design was simpler than I'd expected, more familiar. It shared a lot with the wind shield that protected the top of Mount Aeternia. There were parts I didn't get, and I couldn't even find a hint of the enchantment that suppressed my mana. But the invisible barrier blocking my entry was separate from the chamber itself. The barrier I understood.

Calbern did his best to assist me, but for all his new strength, strength he hadn't even tested yet, he wasn't a mage.

I was. And I wasn't going to leave her alone in there. Didn't matter if Tender kicked us out, I was going after her. I was going to get her out, no matter what.

I crushed the page I was scribbling on, none of the math being good enough. I needed to slow down and understand it, if I wanted to get through. Venting my frustration, I took the page and rolled it into a ball, throwing it at the door.

It sailed right through.

Getting up, I held my hand to the invisible barrier. It still prevented my passage. Another toss of a page confirmed it hadn't been a fluke. It also helped me narrow in on what had been holding me back. Some sort of limit that prevented any ensouled who hadn't been given express permission by Tender.

Which was part of what those green flames had been. I couldn't change the enchantment, but it was enough to tell me that all I needed to do was find a way past the door. Once I was inside, there wouldn’t be anything preventing me from carrying Bevel out, if I had to.

Pulling materials out of my storage, I started doing an inventory on everything I had available. Of what I could use.

That part, Calbern was able to help with. He also let me throw ideas at him.

Eventually, I was ready. Leaving Calbern with enough food and water to last for a couple days, just in case, I cast Dimensional Step.

It stopped working the second I was through the doorway, and the sudden transition partway through was jarring, but the extra mana I'd put into my Aegis spell kept the worst of the backlash from me.

Pushing to my feet, I brushed off the scorched remains of my left sleeve and looked up the same path of red lilies I'd taken earlier. Then my head swiveled to the right, to the end of the route.

Wherever Bevel was, I was going to find her.

…MLI…

A dozen steps along the hidden path to the right, and I already knew I'd made the right choice. From somewhere ahead, I heard a soft sob through the trees.

Pushing forward, I emerged atop a cliff covered in red lilies. The final obstacle of the agility route, one that combined the rest into one grueling final climb.

There she was.

Huddled at the bottom, her head on her knees, was that mess of brown hair that belonged to my apprentice.

Making it down the cliff was easy. There were several hanging vines I could simply drop from onto narrow ledges. Which is what I did, one at a time.

Somehow, Bevel didn't seem to notice my descent. It wasn't until I was a few paces away that she looked up.

I almost didn't recognize her.

Her hair was the same, the usual raggedy mess it always was. The mischievous eyes I was used to were familiar, but clearly distraught. Scattered across her face, her freckles had grown even more pronounced. And the lines of her face had shifted, longer and more defined. Less like a child.

Other than a few twigs in her hair, and more than her fair share of dirt and grass stains, she didn't seem hurt.

As she scrambled to her feet, I realized she didn't come up to the middle of my chest anymore. Instead, in the course of a few hours, Bevel had grown over a foot, now coming nearly up to my chin. Her limbs were all gangly and corded with lithe muscle, but her struggle upward was awkward, staring at me and wiping her cheek.

Like a teenager, who'd had an unexpected growth spurt.

Like… a teenager.

"Papa?" she asked, her voice cracking slightly. I was so shocked by her change in appearance, I didn't even process the word as she darted forward, nearly knocking me off my feet. "You came for me!"

"Yeah," I croaked out, returning her hug. "Course I did."