Of Portals and Medallions

"Take teleportation." Gideon started their session with a lecture.

"The idea in your mind is probably similar to 'take me there instantly, face me in this direction'. It's two steps, not immediately easy, but straightforward. Now let's look at what we need you to do now instead. I'll paraphrase, 'create three portals beneath the gunpowder in the three rooms I am thinking of, place the portal exits one hundred meters directly above them in the open air, ensuring that nobody can enter from the other side.' The difference in difficulty is as stark as night and day."

"You will have gone from two simply formatted steps into three, yet those three are so significantly more complex and greater in scope that one of their steps alone would eclipse the easier two." Gideon didn't have any of his usual cheer today, he had let his personality sit quiet for today and fully committed himself to the job. Like this, he was confusable for a scholar and almost seemed wise. Almost.

"But I'm sorry to say that alone is not the full extent of it. You may have noticed that teleportation required you focus on 'me'. You were distinctly focused inwards on yourself. The most you have so far managed to achieve with magic targeting another object is one singular step. And that was a singular object you could see." Gideon crashed down on the cushioned chair that he had brought to Simon's room. "That is all to say, you're completely and utterly outmatched."

"That's not a good start. I'd hoped you managed to figure something out."
"I did, one thing. Shortcutting." Gideon jumped up again.

"Generally, when you're casting a spell you try to be particular, right? It makes it so that you get the effect you want more accurately. You'll think 'bring that sword to my hand' instead of 'bring that to me'. You see the difference, right? It's quite the thing wouldn't you say?" Anyway, that means we're going to have to step by step go through the idea you'll be using and create shortcuts. Then we can begin to even try and cast that version, which I will remind you is still going to be very difficult, emphasis on the very."

Simon had to admit that it made a lot of sense. He hadn't expected Gideon to pull through so fast on something like this.

"The solution's very like you. Sonia would use brute force I think."

"I'm glad you like it. So, why don't we begin?"

The brainstorming proved surprisingly simple. They cut out everything they could, focusing on trying to generalise as much as possible even if it would risk the spell going off slightly inaccurately, otherwise simplifying the general way Simon thought about an aspect. This resulted in a final idea of 'create one sided portals in the rooms next door, place the portal exits in the open air above them.'

The idea finalised, they began to practice the casting. Gideon sat cross armed and legged on his chair, watching intently as Simon worked on the floor, like a master watching his disciple. The two worked tirelessly like that for several days. They decided together that Simon would focus on mastering the steps one at a time. 

First he would start with a single portal from the floor to the roof above him.
Second, he would ensure that you couldn't travel through it from the other side.
Third, he would make it large enough to encompass the entirety of one of those underground rooms.
Fourth, he would open three of those portals at once.

If all went well, they could slowly move from step to step, slowly increasing the difficulty and finishing with enough time for Simon to get a firm grasp on casting it in full.

The first day ended in failure, as did the second, and the third. By the end of the fourth day Simon had only been able to open a small portal the size of a hand, one that exited less than standing height from the floor. Their hope had begun to run low, and their energy levels were slowly depleting alongside it.

It was on that fourth night that Hethoria decided to finally intervene.

Simon opened his eyes in the white abyss once again. Before anything else, he spun around himself, urgently scanning the area for any sign of the shadow. It was doing this that he saw Hethoria sitting quietly behind him, attempting to look as disinterested as possible. She saw back with one leg over the other, silently pretending to inspect her nails.

"I saw you might need a bit more of my help little Knight. I had intended to ignore you for longer but seeing you trying so desperately moved my motherly heart. Oh, when you cried those tears of frustration last night, how sad it was, I simply couldn't watch any longer." Her voice danced with exaggerated pity.

"Now, out of the generosity of that very same heart I've decided I'm going to help you. And I won't even ask you to beg or kiss my shoes, just an apology will do. It's very nice of me isn't it? Think of it as a reward for being even more entertaining than last time." she raised her head imperiously, crossing her arms underneath her chest.

"So? What'll it be child? Shall you take my generous offer? I'll only make it once."

Simon knew she was looking for the satisfaction of his deference, of making him submit to her, the smaller the submission, the mightier the meaning. Simon knew he needed the offer, so he'd do what she wanted, yet he was certain that playing into her hands wasn't the right choice. So he decided to go overboard.

He hoped for a moment that she wasn't reading his mind and replied. "Of course I accept! Even if I didn't believe it I'd accept! I need your help! My friends need your help! I accept your deal! Please teach me! I wasn't thinking straight last time, please forgive me!"

Hethoria smiled triumphantly at first but quickly understood the insincerity behind his words. "I'm shocked you'd risk that after our last meeting, especially with the situation as it is now. You're lucky I don't mind this sort of thing, or you'd be on your own again you know. Since when were you such an actor?"

"I thought a little drama would break the tension, think it did the job well." Simon cleared his throat. "I am sorry though, I was offloading my own failures on to you and that wasn't fair of me. Will that do?"

Hethoria smiled again, this time without the air of condescension. "It's always good to know my Knight's are humble. Apology accepted. Now be a darling and get ready to listen. We'll be doing a little crash course, nothing too complicated but you'll need to remember it well. Oh, and before that, please stop whining like a wounded dog over Sonia, it got irritating after the first few times. I checked on her, she'll be fine, give it a few more days." 

"She will!! Haha." Simon beamed, jumping up in joy, or as close as he could within the gravityless realm. It was probably the most energetic he had bene in weeks. "I'm so relieved. I couldn't get it out of my mind. Even these past few days - while I was trying to cast - it was still there, I couldn't ever focus properly. I really needed to hear it. Thank you for telling me, really I mean it." She smirked arrogantly, recrossing her legs and laying further back in her invisible throne, lavishing in her praise.

"Ok, ok, enough of that. We, or rather you, don't have forever. I have advice I need to give you so hurry up and calm down." Simon let his exuberance cool down, stilling himself as much as he could while focusing on Hethoria, though the smile never left his face.

"Bah fine, that'll do. Ok, time for the important things. Seriously, how did you react so much to that anyway?" She caught herself and cleared her throat performatively. "Yes, serious things. You've got the right idea with how you two simplified the spell, you're nowhere near ready for something that complex yet, come back to that in ten years. Anyway, your training's going in the wrong direction and we're going to fix that."

She snapped her fingers exaggeratedly. Nothing happened. "Just letting you train here again won't help very much this time. You've got the idea of magic down by now, if that were the only issue you'd have already finished yesterday and been sleeping nice and smugly wrapped up in bed. Or well, you already are right now, but you could have been for longer, and more comfortably."

"So here's what you need to do. You need to learn to channel larger volumes of magic. Reinforce your brain basically. If you don't, you'll instinctively stop putting in full force before it overwhelms you, no matter how hard you try. You're dooming yourself to failure."

"So how do I reinforce my-"

"How do you make your brain stronger you may ask? It's simple, you don't. Come back in ten years for that one haha."

Simon didn't hide his dismay. She'd promised to help him and had immediately reneged on their agreement. "How could-"

"Stop looking at me like that you idiot, that's not the end of it. What is wrong with you, not letting me speak." she tutted.

Simon felt it was better he didn't respond this time.

"It's your medallion, that's basically half the point of it. It's a feature that nobody below Archbishop can really use, or needs to for that matter. Unfortunately for the Gideon boy he's a little too little to know. Sonia was going to tell you herself but then look at what went and happened to her."

Simon grabbed at the medallion around his neck, bringing it up to inspect it close, suddenly very happy for its otherwise ignored presence. 

"Using it takes a bit of practice but with how fast you learned magic this'll be a breeze, you just need to focus on it like you would a spell, when you succeed it'll feel like an invisible string reached out to it and tied you together, all very romantic I'm sure. Anyway, that's it. From there it'll be active till you try to switch it off. I can even speak to you sometimes, but don't expect me to, I have better things to do during the day."

"Alright off you go, I'm done with you today. Good job replying less though, you're getting the hang of the hierarchy in here. You won't get a chance to this time either! Bye bye now!" She wiggled her fingers in a half hearted wave as Simon fell from the abyss once more.