Pillar 2: Stealth navigation:
Navigate through campus to collect your artifact without raising suspicion.
Pillar 3: Detection:
Secure the artifact, and bring it back with you.
Pillar 4: Distractions:
As needed, create distractions that would prevent someone from following you or noticing what you are doing.
Note: For the purposes of this exercise, these should be small distractions. We don’t want to attract attention. See Pillar 2.
I readthe instructions again then stood up from where I had been squatting by the fairy door to read the note. I had to collect an item that could be useful in protecting the academy from outside influences. What item would be useful if the Board of Regents continued to flex its power?
I ran through the components of the school that made it the most powerful. The verdant shield. The instructors. The research we did here. The library of vast information and resources. Our connections with the local community. The plants that were the very soul of the school.
I couldn’t exactly run off with any of those items, except for maybe a few plants. I considered it further. What would be useful to have if we wanted to do things without the board knowing? I felt the Shasta lily pendant, which was hanging from a thin chain around my neck and tucked into my top. Being able to sneak on and off campus without detection was clearly useful. But bringing the pendant the Root and Vine Society had provided me felt a little like cheating.
My mind snagged on something. Aurielle had said she hadnoticed a second fairy door in a completely different part of campus from where I stood now. If there was any chance that area contained asecondpetal portal and I could confirm it, that information could be valuable to us.
Aurielle, as far as I knew, was still at the Halloween party. I had seen the folder where she kept her cartography club materials many times. It was probably in her room right now. Going with my gut, I made my way back toward the academy and went inside.
The central vein and staircase were both empty, most of the students being at the party. Despite not seeing anyone, I tried to step nonchalantly as I went to the door next to mine. We rarely kept our rooms locked at Evergreen Academy unless you were Callan, who apparently warded his door.
I twisted the knob and let out a breath of relief when the door pushed inward and the room was dark and empty. I went straight for Aurielle’s desk and found her cartography club folder sitting in clear view, secured with a rope of plant material. I opened the folder and scanned it for any indication of fairy doors, finding it on the sixth page.
Moments later, I had copied a rough sketch of the area and notes that Aurielle had included on a second piece of paper. I returned her map to the folder, tied it closed, and headed back for the door.
“I’m just grabbing my jacket. You wait here.” Coral’s voice came from the other side of the door, and I froze.
I scanned the room as I considered my options. I could make up an excuse for being in here on the fly, I could hide, or I could sneak out. My pounding heart was taking all the oxygen from my brain, and I couldn’t come up with an excuse, so I squeezed behind Aurielle’s bed and ducked out of sight just as I heard the door opening.
I nearly cursed when I remembered my lantern was glowing, and I hastily yanked a blanket from the bed to cover it.
The closet door slid open, and Coral hummed softly as shepresumably reached for her coat. Less than thirty seconds later, the door clicked closed again, and I heard talking on the other side.
I blew out all the air from my lungs as I emerged from behind the bed. I gave it a few minutes for Coral and whoever she had been with to get down the stairs, returned Aurielle’s blanket, then I hurried out of my friends’ room. Once outside, I lifted the mossy lantern, allowing it to light my steps.
Based on Aurielle’s sketches and what she had told me before, I made my way to the west side of campus, where rows of citrus orchards lined the ground. I studied the hastily copied notes more carefully now, following the little details to the wall. I scanned the bottom as I walked, holding the lantern out to illuminate it.
Aurielle, the precise scholar she was, had included latitude and longitude values, but I had no way of checking those. I would have to use my eyes instead. After about five minutes of searching, the standard brick of the wall was interrupted by a tiny fairy door outline. It was at ankle height, like the other one.
“Now, to confirm if you’re a petal portal,” I murmured. I looked around, squinting at the thin citrus trees whose branches barely extended to the wall. Climbing them to get over the wall wouldn’t be an option.
The ground didn’t produce any options either. I saw nothing there but earth and grass. I eyed the trees again. The ruby red grapefruit was already producing, and an idea began to form.
I collected as many grapefruit as I could carry, stacked them near the fairy door, then went back for more. Eventually, I had a tall-enough fruit stack of stairs to climb and hoist myself over the wall. It didn’t seem super secure to climb on a footstool made of orbs, but I didn’t have any other ideas. I climbed the stacked stair set of grapefruit and reached my arms onto the top of the wall.
“Here goes everything,” I said, grasping the pendant and stepping onto the wall. I sat atop it for a few moments, waiting for a sensation that would discourage me from climbing, or to set off some kind of alarm, butnothing happened.
I started to smile then realized I didn’t know if the verdant shield only worked one way. To be sure, I would need to get off the wall and climb over it again from the other side. I hopped down and gratefully noted the California black oak on the outside side of the wall. I scaled it easily and sidled along one of its limbs then dropped down on the wall. I held my breath as I climbed over, but everything went smoothly.
“Well, well, looks like youarea petal portal,” I said aloud. At that, a drop of cold water landed on my cheek, and I looked up. It was beginning to rain, and I needed to hurry back to the academy if I wanted to avoid getting soaked. It meant that the Halloween partygoers would likely be streaming inside as well.
I looked at the instructions from the Root and Vine Society again.
Each pillar will be assessed during your initiation task. These include:
