Final Preparations

The pair didn't hesitate to begin again. They rushed back to their room like men possessed, forgoing even a single meal in the dining hall. They were completely committed to their research and practice. For the next week they would not let anything stop them.

Simon immediately began attempting to replicate his previous success. Further fuelled by Sonia's encouragement, his heart was ablaze. Uncertainty still lingered, he still wasn't sure if they would succeed in time, but his determination didn't falter in the slightest. He connected to his medallion without difficulty. Hethoria had been right, it was much easier after the first time. That achieved, his mind cleared almost instantly, a single idea flashed through in sequence, a portal somewhat smaller than last night opening immediately. Disappointed but not deterred, Simon destroyed it and tried again, absolutely determined to eclipse his previous record.

For his part, Gideon practiced in the same vein as Simon. He had never attempted to open a portal before; while it wasn't beyond his capabilities, it was not a field he was particularly focused upon. Nonetheless, he knew that his extra experience and his magical intuition would allow him to master it faster than Simon. Gideon hoped that gaining an understanding of the spell's core would allow him to assist the rate of Simon's growth, the same as he had with the medallion and many of his spells beforehand. While some part of him wanted to return to another tome and search for some other hidden aide, he had decided it was an unlikely dream.

Both had been successful by the end of the day. Gideon had caught up to where Simon had been the night before, though he noticed that it required much more effort from him comparatively, the spell leaving him drained. Simon, however, had managed to more than double the size of the gate he could open, managing to fully step through before accidentally finding himself stuck on the roof. Some small setbacks later, he was back inside and at work again.

Hethoria seemed impressed when Simon entered the dream that night. Rather than gloat or sneer she chose instead to compliment herself for choosing such a good Knight. It certainly wasn't friendly, but it was a good deal better than she would usually offer.

Sonia returned to her work again the next day, replacing Orion in the general management of the cloister and in the assignment of tasks. Orion didn't comment on her state the previous day, instead receiving the dismissal from his temporary position with a salute and a relaying of what information he had.

Simon and Gideon worked in separate fields the next three days. Their initial four step plan had been discarded instead for what felt most natural to them at the time.

Simon focused on widening the portal to its necessary size. He slowly reinforced the idea in his mind with slightly greater intentions of size, growing the portal layer by layer.

Gideon, meanwhile, attempted to open a trio of portals all his own. He recognised they would be miniscule compared to Simon's but the fundamentals would remain the same. He was certain this would be the most difficult step in the process, and any help he could offer at all could prove monumental.

It was with sweat stained faces and simultaneous cheers of celebration that they completed their current tasks, as if they had been bound to one another's success. Having finished late in the night, they rested on their laurels and slept before beginning on the final steps the next day.

That next morning, Sonia had begun her final checks. She had assigned positions in the battle for every priest of the cloister. Those who could teleport would fight on the field, while those without the ability would be placed on the walls, where they would offer ranged support. Their supply of arrows proved limited, one of the few things they had been unable to stock up on, the city hosting few stores to fletch them. Consequently, they would have only a few minutes before they would be rendered useless. Sonia hoped that it would prove enough.

She had personally confirmed that the gunpowder was in place, all three rooms practically overflowing with the substance. For a moment, the volume had terrified her, it would be an extraordinary amount for Simon to transport, and they had no backup plan. They had used nearly everything in their stores for this trap, leaving less than three full barrels in excess. 

She also took the opportunity to contact Thea, who had happily confirmed that the Varokians pace was steady. Thanking her, she further took the opportunity to confirm Thea's role in the final defence. She was their greatest bowman, and would prove irreplaceable in the plan.

Everything else in place, she began the long, multi-day effort of evacuating the civilians from the city. She was aware that the Varokians would likely treat them well, but she refused to take the risk of them being used as hostages if the situation were to come to a siege. She had done all that she can, the rest would be up to Simon, and Gideon to guide him.

There were three days left until they were out of time. Simon had succeeded in making his portals large enough, but it had taken everything he had to get that far. Now, only three days remained to complete the final two steps. While the prospect did prove daunting as a whole, he was fairly confident he could at least learn to lock the portal before time ran out. In their new worst case scenario, they would still be able to transport a full room of gunpowder and greatly damage the Varokian forces. Nonetheless, Simon refused to stop.

The problem was not the power involved any longer. He was certain that, were he to successfully create multiple at once, they would all be at the same size as a singular one. The idea had already been consolidated in his mind, he would as easily call upon it three times as he would one. It was just coming to understand how to do so that now remained.

"This one was strange to solve, a complex little puzzle box." Gideon began "The problem is that creating three portals at once just isn't reasonable, you're not going to be able to do it. Thankfully, that's not how I did it. I hope you're ready for another of my oh so valuable explanations."

Simon didn't even notice he had nodded, his attention completely on Gideon.

"The idea isn't to make three portals. It's to create one really big large one - then cut holes in it. You make it cover all three of the rooms, then you just cut off the parts you don't want, as simple as that. It doesn't even matter if you catch a bit extra, grabbing a few extra stones from the walls won't do much after all. Sounds easier, right?"

"Easier yeah, but not easy. It still sounds pretty difficult to me. Plus, making the portal even larger is going to be hard, I don't know if I have the time for that."

"Well I can't speak for that last point but cutting parts out is way easier than it seems. Only took me a few tries once I thought of it." Gideon seemed to think for a second. "I'd say try it now but I think it might feel quite a bit different between sizes. No point wasting our time. Just do what you've been doing till now again. Make it larger."

"And you're sure this is a good idea? Changing the plan now seems really risky."
"Of course I'm sure, I'm the one who managed to cast three at once you know. Now be a good student for me and stop with the backtalk, you've got work to do."

To his credit, Gideon hadn't been wrong yet. Every idea he'd come up with to simplify the process had worked better than the last. If Hethoria had claimed that Simon had good magical aptitude, he was certain that Gideon's would be extraordinary. The man seemed to understand magic at its most fundamental level. If he was capable of this as a Bishop, Simon shuddered to think what he could do if he had the powers of an Archbishop instead.

Simon returned back to the monotonous work he'd been doing the past few days. He'd moulded the portal bigger by slowly increasing the size in chunks. Somewhere early in the process he'd realised something of his own. The larger the portal got, the bigger those chunks could be.

Every time he added to it, it grew exponentially, its size increasing faster the further along he got. Consequently, he was fairly certain he would be able to get the portal to size in a day, maybe even less. That left him two days to close off one side and find ways to cut parts off entirely.

Realistically, it should have been impossible. To do so much in two days would require him to move much faster than he had until now. Yet, his aptitude for the spell had only increased. If his ability to increase its size had grown exponentially, who was to say that his ability to manipulate it in other ways hadn't grown with it? Simon was aware that he may very well be fooling himself, but that didn't matter. He was going to try and do what he needed to, whether he succeeded or not didn't matter now, he just needed to get as far as he could.

With that, Simon began his final preparations.