All right. Next had been a trip to Avidich to meet with the Mitth Aristocra who’d brought her into the family. Then off to Jamiron for her formal schooling…

There were three more worlds after that, and each green glow brought back memories of sights and sounds and aromas she’d almost forgotten. By the time she stepped on Csilla, it was almost as if she’d actually revisited those places.

The ground again glowed green. “Welcome, Mitth’ali’astov,” a disembodied voice rose from the mosaic. “Proceed to the ancient home to begin your next Trial.”

Thalias took a deep breath. “I obey,” she said. Walking across the mosaic, her mind still swirling with memories, she stepped onto the soft swish grass and headed toward the house.

There were a lot of Trials.

The first four or five were relatively easy: written tests involving general knowledge, logic, problem solving, and Ascendancy history. It was like being in school again, and while Thalias had only been a fair student she’d always loved learning. She breezed through them with relative ease, wondering if the rest of the Trials would be as straightforward.

They weren’t.

Next came a test to see if she could cross a three-meter-wide water channel without getting wet, using only boards that were two and a half meters long each. After that she had to climb a smooth-barked tree to reach a sight line that would reveal the answer to an ancient Mitth riddle. Another family riddle required her to find a subtle pattern in the flower arcs surrounding the mansion.

More than once, as she worked through the puzzles, she wondered if these Trials had been devised since the homestead was moved under the Csilla surface or if they predated that time. If it was the latter, it meant everything that had once been up there had been duplicated in meticulous detail.

Somehow, that degree of commitment didn’t surprise her.

She’d assumed the Trials would end with the setting of the cavern’s artificial sun. Again, she was wrong. A short six-hour sleep interval, and it was back to another battery of written tests and a couple more outdoor logic problems.

During the entire time, from the moment Thurfian left her at the mosaic map, she hadn’t seen another living being. All her instructions had come via the same disembodied voice she’d heard when she’d first arrived, while her meals and room were waiting when she arrived at the designated places.

Finally, two hours past her small noontime meal, she was sent on the final Trial: to climb to the top of the mountain she’d seen rising up behind the mansion.