But to teleport, he had to know the destination, and there was no way of knowing what lay beyond the rock, or where his father might be. No, he had to get through the rock somehow. There must be magic that would do it, a Destruction spell, or… or Ethereal Spirit, the Healing spell!

For a moment, a fragile hope buoyed Fort’s spirits, and he stood back up. Ethereal Spirit turned your body insubstantial, letting you swim right through solid objects. He could relearn that, and…

Except he hadn’t learned it. Sierra had stolen it from Jia’s mind without meaning to and planted it in Fort’s, back when he was trying to pass his Healing test in the original school. If he tried to learn it now, it could take months or longer to even reach the spell.

Maybe he really did need Jia or Rachel, just to get through to the other dimension. But that would mean one of them would be lost, and he wasn’t willing to even consider that. Besides, Cyrus had said Fort alone could rescue his father, if he was willing to not make it back himself. How was that possible if this obstacle stopped him?

That meant there must be a way through, and all he had to do was think of it. He sat back down on the rock, racking his brain for ideas. Unfortunately, every new possibility that occurred to him would have required one of his friends, and he slammed his palm down on the rock, the frustration and anger coming back quickly. There had to be a way he could do this alone! If he couldn’t bring one of the other students, then maybe a magical item. He felt around to the staff and bow on his back, but a fireball wasn’t going to damage the stone. The staff’s Healing magic would be just as useless, and the only other item Fort remembered in the armory was a shield, which didn’t seem like it’d accomplish a whole lot here either.

But maybe there were other items? Didn’t he hear someone talking about a hammer? He tried to home in on that memory, but could only bring to mind the bathroom, for some reason. Wait, that was it, the bathroom, and Chad and Bryce talking on either side of his stall.

Trey had wanted to switch to Healing, that was it. But before that, they’d mentioned what he was working on. A hammer.

A hammer infused with an earthquake spell from the Destruction book.

Fort climbed back out of the portal so fast he almost tripped over his staff. He immediately opened a teleportation circle back to the weapons room and leaped through it, emerging into darkness once more. He clicked on the light again and started his search.