Irene called it a test of sheer willpower. Something that I could use as a kind of benchmark as to what I could accomplish.
And sure, it was easy to see it that way… the same way it was easy to be beguiled by her words too. Because, really, it was more like a test of trying not to get an aneurysm than the virtuous task of grit and mettle she was making it out to be.
She instructed me to head over to where Adalia had been standing. Once she had me right in the middle of the open plain, I finally got the gist of what I was supposed to do.
"Gather your magic, all of it—as much as you're able," she had said, circling around me in the strut befitting that of a fitness coach. "Concentrate it, channel it all into one direction, your dominant hand preferably. It'll hurt, and it'll hurt a lot more the more you funnel through, then once you're sure you can't squeeze anymore, you need to strike the ground with your palm. You were watching just now, yes? Simply copy what Adalia did."
