Aleydis stared at the portal with trepidation, trying to will her uneasy stomach to settle.

This was the only way for her to be able to spend any time with her family this winter, the route via road much too long to be considered. It was why she had stayed at the academy last winter and while she didn't regret making that decision, she had missed her family terribly.

The only question was, was seeing her family worth the debilitating migraine she would suffer for at least a day after the portal travel either way. Since she only got a week off of school, that meant that she would have to return to the academy at least a couple of days early to account for the potential migraine. She couldn't afford to miss any days of class, the curriculum so full of information that it would take forever to glean the knowledge on her own. And even if Liza took notes for her, a small prideful part of her wanted to gain perfect attendance again.

She wanted to be one of the best students academically in the entire academy so that she could bring her family and country glory when she graduated. She wasn't a fool, she knew that Colbini was a small, unimportant country in the grand scheme of things. They exported nothing of note, were not geographically important when it came to borders or resources, and even their people tended to live average lives with no warrior prodigies or great mages coming from there.

But that was part of what she wanted to protect so badly, the ability to just live a normal life in peace, without fear of invasion or having to force exceptional talent to bear the burden of defending their country from those that would covet their skills. To let their people have families and live average, contented lives.

If she were a high-ranking graduate of the Constellations Academy, it would afford her a certain amount of respect. Also, if it became known that she was a diplomatic envoy trained there, it would give her a certain level of respect when it came to negotiations or dealing with any envoys who came to Colbini. It would also grant her respect in most of the countries on their continent if she had to travel to another country for anything.

It would be easier if she could just use the blasted portals.

The portals had done more to unify the continent than any human force had, making the entire landmass accessible in mere minutes. People could travel from the northern tip to the southern isles in less than a day, only stopping for the necessary breaks, with little-to-no strain.

Why then, did she have to be part of a tiny percentage of the population who got portal sick? And within that tiny percentage, there was a wide spectrum of symptoms. Some people could get nothing more than slightly nauseous or have a small rash break out that quickly faded.

However, on the other end of the scale, going through a portal could leave a person with crippling migraines or even kill the traveler through a heart attack, stroke, or blood clot.

There was even a tiny, tiny fraction of people who could start off with only mild symptoms only to have them worsen each time they took a portal until it ultimately became fatal to them.

Thankfully, there was a way to test for this portal aversion, since there was no commonality between gender, geographic location, or a dozen other things that could usually be used to pinpoint illnesses or mutations like this. If a person with a strong aversion to portals didn't realize they had that and took one, it would be immediately fatal, especially since there were no visible tells to this condition.

To avoid this happening, mages simply examined each child on their first birthday and assessed them for a certain twist in their essence. If there was a small twist, then there was the potential they could travel normally or experience mild symptoms.

If their essence contained a strong twist, like Aleydis's essence did, it meant that they could have anywhere from moderate to extremely strong responses to portal travel. Those with strong twists could be fine for short portal travel, from one country to the next country over for example. However, longer travel was guaranteed to make the symptoms flare. So although there were strong precautions against them traveling for long distances, it was ultimately up to the traveler to personally decide if they wanted to take the risk or not.

Finally, there were those whose essence contained what could only be described as a knot in it. There was a blockage to the flow, a tangle in it. These people were denied portal travel, simply because in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, it was fatal. The odds were simply too great against survival for it to be considered.

Although many academic institutes and mages had summoned the phenomena, no one had been able to untangle what it was that made the small percentage react this way.

Recently, some healers, mages, and alchemists had come together to see if there was a way to alleviate the symptoms even if they couldn't pinpoint how to stop it from happening altogether. The Constellations Academy had a team that had been working on this issue for nearly a decade now and they were the ones who had approached her and other portal-restricted students about testing their new concoctions to see if they helped at all.

It was all free will, of course. No student would be penalized for not participating in something that did not have proven results. But the chance to travel conveniently without backlash was highly tempting. The team also offered to cover travel expenses on the return trip if the portal travel still proved to be too tumultuous, so there really was no downside. Well, besides the obvious side-effects, but since they would've experienced them anyway, nothing really changed.

She was even being accompanied by one of the team, a junior herbalist by the name of Matteo. He was nice enough, even if he was a little bit nosy. He wanted to know exactly what she was feeling every second after she had drank the mug of tea they had concocted. The tea hadn't been too bad, bitter lavender with hints of citrus. But the fact that she had to wait for an hour after drinking it to attempt the portal had been torturous.

Not because of the tea or the wait, but because every two minutes like clockwork, Matteo had asked if she felt any different, or if her fingers were tingly, or her tongue numb, or a half dozen other things. She had been as patient as she could with her answers but had finally run out of patience twenty minutes ago and sent him away to talk with the portal master about the logistics of the portals between the academy and Colbini.

The way that his eyes had lit up and he'd immediately taken off had left her silently apologizing to the man in charge of it, but better him than her, for the sake of her sanity. She had expected the man to shoo him away after just a few minutes, but either he was kinder than she thought or Matteo was more persistent, cause he hadn't returned.

She had been relieved at first but she was starting to grow nervous, cause it was almost time for her slot and she didn't dare miss it. If she were to lose this slot, there wasn't another available until the day before Alrik's test and she couldn't risk having a terrible migraine that would leave her bed-bound. He had worked so hard for this and she wanted to watch him succeed.

Since there were many students heading home for Midwinter and Yule, they were only giving out five-minute slots. And she wouldn't be able to locate the herbalist in that short of time. Her hands curled into fists as she mentally chastised herself. She should've just held onto her patience and kept him close, so she wouldn't miss her slot.

A voice spoke up behind her, startling her, "There you are, Junior Aleydis. Are you ready for your slot? It's almost time and you don't want to miss it, do you?"

She glanced over her shoulder to find Matteo giving her a warm grin, his brown eyes bright with curiosity. Ah, that's right, there was no way that he would risk missing out on the results of the herbal concoction they had prepared. She stood, smoothing down her skirt and offering him a smile in return, "I'm ready. Did you get all the information you needed?"

He shrugged, picking up her bag that she'd filled with books so she could study at home. "Eh, I think I understood most of what he was telling me. But I'm going to have to visit him again and ask some follow-up questions, probably talk to some mages and engineers as well. We've been so focused on essence and trying to find a commonality between those who deal with Portal Aversion that we didn't think to look into the mechanics or running of the portals themselves."

She thought about taking her bag back before deciding it wasn't worth the effort. Instead, she moved over toward where the portal sat in the middle of the room, watching the student ahead of her disappear into the vivid blue depths of the portal. "Is that good?"

He nodded, gleefully. "It's another potential avenue of information. The more information we can gather, the closer we will be to making a significant breakthrough. It's only a matter of time until we find the cure for it."

She muttered fervently, "I really, really hope so."

Before he could ask her to repeat what she had just said, the man running the portal called, "Portal to Colbini."

Aleydis raised her hand politely, "That's me."

He nodded tiredly. "Approach the platform. When I give the signal, count to three and then enter. You might feel mild discomfort or a squeezing sensation, but that's normal for portal travel. It should take no more than three breaths in and out for you to reach your destination. Just keep walking calmly during this interval and you'll be just fine. Only exit through the light, do not try to exit through any of the blue portal as we will be unable to control where you end up. If you choose to do so anyway, we hold no responsibility for the outcome. Do you understand all of this?"

She nodded, "Yes sir."

"Good, on the platform."

She moved over to the platform, Matteo moving to stand right next to her. She tried to rationalize to herself that she had taken the herbs, so she should be fine. Still, she couldn't help the frisson of dread that crawled down her spine. To her, portals only meant misery, not convenience.

The man rang the bell, which was the signal to go, and she squared her shoulders, walking directly into the blue depths of the portal. Better to just get this over with.

The familiar pressure from the last time she had taken a portal but it didn't seem as intense this time. Maybe the herbs would help?

She dismissed the thought as useless and kept walking. They would either help or they wouldn't, no use stressing about it. The square of light suddenly appeared and she made a beeline for it, desperate to be out of this world of blue. It was what she imagined being deep underwater would be like, only without the lack of breathing bit.

Stepping out into the courtyard of the palace, she could see her family waiting for her, happy and anxious expressions on their faces. They were undoubtedly worried that she'd step through the portal and immediately collapse like she had on a couple of other occasions where they'd had no choice but to use portal travel.

She took stock of herself, surprised to find that she didn't feel like death warmed over. Maybe this tea really....

Before she could finish the thought, her stomach lurched violently. Turning away from her family that were moving toward her, she dashed to the edge of the courtyard and promptly threw up everything she had ever thought of eating and then some.

When she was certain she was done, she slowly straightened, only to hear a voice say brightly, "I've never seen vomit that shade before."

Rolling her eyes, she dug through her pockets for her handkerchief. 

Scholars really were something else.