The maglev is much stronger than I’m used to from the hoverjoust pit, and I shoot forward so unexpectedly fast that I fall. Hard. My ankle twists with a sickening crunch. No time for pain. I pulse Ha’i down my leg to soothe the injury as I limp after my board and clamber back onto it.

This is good. I’m going to be able to go even faster than I thought. But realistically, I don’t think even I’ll be able to stay on my board at the speed I need to sustain to intercept Kor. I wish I had a binding to strap into like on my snowboard.

I take inventory of everything I have with me, but I don’t have any rope or anything to help secure myself to the board.

Find anything you can use. That’s what Rafe would say.

Think.

I’m already sweating. I push the flyaways out of my face, and my hand catches on the vine that Sal wove into my braid. Yes.

I unwind the vine, grasp it in my hands, and take a deep breath.

Please grow, I request.

The vine lengthens and winds around my arms.

Yes! Stronger. Thicker.

Soon I have a thick vine twice the length of my body. I use it to lash my feet to my board.

And then I go.

I bend my knees to find my center of gravity, and I’m a bullet. I lose sense of what is up and down. I’m just a girl being sucked through a straw.

Which, apparently, is not a sustainable existence for all that long.

I’ve lost track of time and distance, and I’m utterly exhausted from doing nothing but standing. I slow to no faster than a walk and take the time to snack on Sal’s trail mix. As I crunch on peanuts and pumpkin seeds, I hold back tears. How am I supposed to do this? It’s dark, and I’m alone and tired. I ache all over. My calf muscles are killing me from involuntarily clenching them the whole way. I wish I could sit.

And then I have the most bizarre idea… that just might work.

I slow to a complete stop. Which is terrifying in the echoing tunnel somewhere deep under the Atlantic Ocean. I refuse to think about what could happen if the train were reactivated.

I retrieve another pumpkin seed from the bag and use my spoon to pry off the seed shell, then cup my hands in shiin around the inner seed. I am an Alchemist Sire, and I’ve learned how to do this. I know I can do this. There. I can feel a tiny thread of Ha’i still inside.

Please, grow.