Sneaking out of the annex was easy. Her shadow cloak had become as comfortable as her favorite pair of gloves and Amaryllis knew no one would notice her while she wore it. Despite that, her heart pounded loudly and her hands shook slightly as she opened the door to the back garden.

She knew the chances of being caught were low. She also knew that her cloak was about as close to flawless as one could expect from a fledgling mage. But no matter what she told herself she couldn’t steady her nerves.

They had not specifically stated where they would meet, but she figured the tree from last time was the best place to wait. She could keep an eye on the paths that led to the back garden, and the tree trunk was broad enough to hide her. A good excuse for why Sir Vincent missed her if he looked before she released her cloak.

Amaryllis sighed and leaned back against the tree. Now that she was outside, she felt a bit more at ease. She wouldn’t miss him or risk being late and make him think she had skipped their meeting. A few less things to worry about and fret over.

The evening itself was pleasant enough. The temperature was cool but not enough to chill her. The flowers in the nearby garden had closed for the day, cutting off the redolent aromas that frankly made her a bit dizzy once the summer heat set in. Instead, the remnants of a pleasant perfume lingered in the air.

A few wispy clouds drifted by overhead. They were so thin they couldn’t block out even the faintest of the twinkling stars above. Amaryllis had to admit that she enjoyed the garden far more now than during the day. There was no oppressive heat from the lack of shade. No rumble of wagon wheels on paths hidden just out of sight. No passersby for her to worry about filling her role as daughter, host, or lady. Just a comfortable quiet.

The moon was close to full so the garden was fairly well lit. She was tempted to move to one of the benches to relax and watch the stars. Perhaps she should get a star map on her next visit to the library. Something about the silvery moonlight made everything cozier than normal. As if the shadows hid the emptiness of the space that sun’s harsh light refused to hide.  

“I don’t know why I rushed,” Amaryllis muttered to herself as the minutes stretched into an hour.

Her excitement had gotten the better of her. She had felt too restless to stay seated in her room and had come out as soon as she was ready. The banquet would go until dawn and there were still several hours until midnight. The heavens only knew how long she would be waiting.

Sir Vincent was one of the heroes of the evening. Of course he wouldn’t be able to leave the banquet anytime soon. He’d struggled last time when he was just a guest. It would likely be well past midnight before he escaped.

He’d come straight out in his finery while she was back in a plain dress. Amaryllis scowled and fought the urge to bunch her skirts in her hands. She didn’t need to add any more wrinkles.

She wanted to look nice for their meeting but felt lacking dressed as she was now. The bit of lace on her bodice hardly compared to the jewels she’d worn to the banquet.

Logically, she knew it would have been foolish to wear something so flashy to a secret meeting. The diamonds on her dress earlier had sparkled at the faintest light and movement. Even the laziest of sentries passing by on their rounds would have spotted her had she kept it on.

Plus, the heavy skirts would have dragged on the ground, getting tangled in leaves and stained with mud. The maids would have been able to tell immediately when they retrieved the dress the next morning. It simply wasn’t worth the risk.

A bit of jewelry would have been nice though. A simple pendant or maybe a bracelet. Anything that would have made her feel a bit more elegant. But even her simplest accessories were made of valuable metals and all were kept under lock and key in the main building.

A neat and tidy look was the best she could do. Although that was a bit of a struggle too. Her fidgeting had left wrinkles in her skirt and threatened to ruin her hair. It was already looking a bit frazzled. After the pins had been pulled out her curls had puffed up a bit, growing frizzy and tangled the more she messed with it.

She’d eventually managed to plait it into a long braid, tied off with a ribbon, but it looked altogether untidy. She had no idea what the maids did to keep the frizzy pieces smooth and the curled tips from escaping. Amaryllis tucked it over her shoulder in an attempt to hide it. She’d have to pay more attention the next time they did her hair.

To keep herself busy, and more importantly to stop her fidgeting, she decided to practice magic. Like any skill, repetition was necessary for improvement. Her chances to actually practice using her magic were few and far between. The hour or two she managed late at night in her room hardly felt like enough to advance. Her core was growing steadily, but slowly. She was impatient to become better and try new spells.

The second rune she had learned was a levitation spell. It hadn’t been particularly hard to grasp. The rune had no affinity and was simple, for a rune that is.

Amaryllis had mastered her control over moving items by lifting books and shoes and other small things, sending them in increasingly complex dances through the air in her room. From there she had moved to lifting the furniture to test the limits of her magical strength that had been slowly growing as her mana capacity increased.

As a way to push herself even further, she had begun working on using wild magic and a rune at the same time. The process was taxing and she frequently dropped whatever she was levitating.

She was improving though. Amaryllis found it comforting that, no matter how much she struggled with maintaining the rune, her wild magic stayed in place.

The divide between wild magic and runes was tricky. They both needed her to summon her mana from her core and circulate it along her mana pathway. Though that was where their similarities ended.

Wild magic was more instinctual and easier to manage. The shadows responded to her in the same way her feet did when she walked around. She didn’t need to fully form a direct thought to move one foot in front of the other, nor did she need to explicitly guide her shadows.

Runes were more like dancing than walking. Her footsteps, her posture, the music, the pattern of the dance. She had to focus on all of them. That took far more concentration than walking. For a rune, she needed to think of the pattern, direct her mana into it, control the amount of mana she was using, and focus on whatever effect the spell was having. All at the same time with perfect concentration. Otherwise, the spell would fail.

Some runes were simple. An easy slow dance. She just needed to master the patterns to cast them. No adjustments were needed. As long as she filled a proper rune with mana it would work. The light spell was usually the first a mage was taught because it was simple, lacked elemental affinity, and needed no changes.

The levitation rune was a step up in complexity. It had slight modifications to guide an object in simple directions. Up, down, left, right, forward, back. She’d even read how to combine the motions too. The rune was complicated, but the mage using it didn’t have to make calculations in the moment to find the best version of the spell to cast.

In fact, it was oddly similar to how she moved her shadows using wild magic. Occasionally she lapsed into directing an object using wild magic rather than the rune. While it worked most of the time, it quickly drained her core.

She was most efficient with her mana when she used the rune. Wild magic was easier, but she knew she couldn’t stick to just that. There were many much more complicated, and much more useful, spells that relied on adjustments. If she let herself get into bad habits now then she would struggle with those other spells later.

Shield spells were her next goal. They were a basic requirement for all mages, even novices. They were also seen as the test of whether someone truly had an aptitude to become a mage. Shield runes needed adjustments to vary their durability, size, and scale. A shield for one person to block an arrow had different requirements than one to shield twenty people from a monster attack. A miscalculation in the rune or mana supply could be disastrous.

The simplest shield spell required more mana than her shadow cloak or levitation spell. By using the two together she got a to practice managing a complicated spell while also increasing her core capacity. Accumulating mana increased her core size, but expending mana pushed it to grow even faster.

By the time the sound of boots on gravel reached her ears, Amaryllis had scattered nearly two dozen rocks and branches around the garden. And less than half had been from losing control of the spell. She wasn’t confident about lifting larger things yet but she was satisfied with her progress as she let her shadow cloak dissipate.

“Apologies for the delay,” Sir Vincent said as soon as he reached her.

“Oh, please don’t,” she awkwardly waved her hands before her. “I can only imagine how popular you were tonight. I should be apologizing for asking you to still come out to meet me instead of enjoying the banquet.”

“You gave me an excuse to leave,” he snorted. “Their compliments don’t feel all that sincere when they’re asking about my parentage right after.”

“Well,” Amaryllis bit her lip, unsure what she was supposed to say about the nosy gossips and a touch ashamed at her own curiosity on the matter. “I’m glad you made it back safely. I was so worried when the news of your victory came.”

“You were worried?”