I was still feeling shaky from the intense vision memory as I walked the large halls of the palace. Before the rebel attack these halls would have been silent seldom for the occasional servant. Now the hallways were filled with guards and soldiers. They stood at every door and corner and patrolled the grounds on a constant loop.

It was a safety measure, but I felt uncomfortable being watched twenty-four seven. It's no surprise I'm not a fan of being watched and studied. I prefer anonymity – the freedom to come and go as I please without question or scrutiny. I guess I will have to get over that idea with my new life here. A princess can never be anonymous, and she will never escape scrutiny.

Opening the back door that lead to the rear gardens of the palace I took a deep breath of the cooled air. It was chilly, and the sun shone down upon the snow topped trees and frosted grass. The water around the palace stayed unfrozen and instead gently reflected the mountains collecting it. Small ripples moved across the water from the currents created by the waterfalls continually feeding the lake.

Coming outside always felt like a small escape to my life within the palace. I took longer than usual as I walked to my magic lesson; I wanted to take in the sights and sounds of the outdoors for just a little bit longer.

The pebbled stone path I walked across was slippery and made my every step audible as the stones shifted under my shoes. The usual sound of the soldiers training – the clash of metal, the grunt of a strong blow, and whiny of horses – filled my ears.

Eventually that sound was replaced with Ulric's voice. "You're late," he said. Turning from his spot at the opening of the maze he began walking away and I quickened my pace to catch up to him.

For as many times as we had been in the maze for our lessons I had yet to truly master the twists and turns to find myself to the center or to get myself back out again. Ulric was my lifeline, my guide within the labyrinth.

Once inside the solitude of the heart of the maze Ulric began the lesson.

"Try to remember the sensation of your portals," he instructed.

I groaned in annoyance. "You ask me this every time and it hasn't changed. Going through a portal doesn't feel much different than opening a door and going outside. You can feel the air and temperature change, but nothing else."

"I will keep asking until you can successfully portal. What else happens when you portal?" He began to pace in front of me with his arms crossed over his chest in contemplation.

"I can see them. It's a shimmer in the air like something isn't quite as it seems. But who knows if that's a product of my creation or from the magic way lines Zora would lead me too, or maybe they were Zora to begin with."

"For one, it couldn't be just Zora to begin with since you created them to get into the world. This Zora is not powerful enough to create portals from our world into your world that frequently while also tracking you through the realms." Ulric paused in his walking. "But there is something in common between them all. I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner." He trailed off.

"Think of what?"

"The connection between all of your portals was that you were feeling strong emotion, fear. Either fear to get back or fear to escape what was happening here."

"That still doesn't explain all the time's I portalled her in my sleep."

"It is common for magic users to have 'outbursts' in their sleep. It's a time when the walls in the mind are thin and magic flows more freely."

"Okay, but does any of that really help us now?"

"Yes of course, if you want to tap into your portal energy you need to put yourself in that same mindset. You need to be afraid Amberleigh."

"Well that doesn't sound very fun," I mumbled in annoyance.

Ignoring my comment Ulric continued, "Sit down somewhere and focus on the fear and the sensations when you previously portalled."

Following his instructions, I took a seat on the edge of the fountain and closed my eyes. I tried to imagine the heart racing, palm sweating fear of those moments. I pictured myself back in that alley thinking I was going to be assaulted by a collection of drunk guys. I worked through every detail in my head until I could feel the same anxiety within my chest, the fear that I wasn't going to make it out unscathed.

I focused even more upon the portal. The way the air moved like water and the feeling of relief I had knowing I had another way to get out, that I could escape from the men in the alley.

When I opened my eyes I looked to Ulric who was staring at me. "Anything happen?" I asked.

"No, try again."

I sighed, but once again closed my eyes. This time I tried to remember my chase through the woods, back when I thought Ulric was hunting me down to kill me. It was the first time I thought I might die, a true fight for survival. Fear had pumped through my veins and mingled with the adrenaline until my body and mind was numb except for running for my life.

When the memory played through to the end I once again looked to Ulric, silently asking if there was any hint of a portal.

He shook his head, crushing my hopes. "This is not working; magic is about feeling. Your magic comes from within you, it cannot just be an instinct from fear but something you connect with. You have to want it to happen."

"I do want it Ulric. We have been training my portals every day for weeks now with no progress. I just can't do it."

"You have done it before, you can do it again. Portal magic is no easy feat, it is not meant to happen at the snap of a finger. You must work hard for it."

"I am working hard," I said exasperatedly. "But I don't even know what I'm working for. I don't know what it even feels like to try and replicated; I'm lost. I mean, how did you first figure out how to use your ice magic, I'm sure it's not like this."

Ulric was silent for a moment as he stared down at his hands seemingly lost in a memory. "No, you are correct, this is not how I learned my magic," he said slowly. "When I was around 12 my first magical outbursts began, it felt easy at the time, the way the magic flowed out to create frost and ice around me. It wasn't until I began training that the natural feeling was lost, and I was reminded of how difficult magic is to master."

"Then how did you end up mastering it?"

"I have yet to master magic, few ever do. But it wasn't until my tutors began techniques of visualizing my magic as a tool instead of an inanimate concept that it began to click. When I use my magic I try to feel it, feel the way it is moving in and around me. I try to imagine it as building blocks to create things."

"How do I visualize portals, they aren't a solid objects like the ice objects you make?"

"Some of my other magics are less well formed," he reminded me with a flick of his wrist and a particularly cold gust of wind swirled around me with a purpose and picked up my hair.

"Well then how do you visualize wind?"

"I see my magic pulling it the same way I would pull a blanket through the air."

"Okay, let me try again," I said and closed my eyes for the third time. For this attempt I tried to visualize the shimmer and the way it was filled with rippling magic. The magic was causing the divide between wherever I was, and wherever I wanted to go, to thin and fade until there was nothing. Only when there was nothing allowing me to perfectly picture my bedroom here in the palace did I open my eyes to check with Ulric.

"Still nothing."

"Seriously?" I stood up with an annoyed huff and stalked away from Ulric. "I don't know what else I can do at this point.

"I don't know any more either, Amberleigh. But you will have to figure it out if you would like to make it back inside before dark."

I spun around at his words just as I saw his heel disappearing around one of the maze corners leading out of the core. I sprinted after him, afraid of being left in here not knowing my way out.

By the time I made it to the same turn he was long gone and I blindly turned myself around and around in the maze hoping to catch up to him. After a while I realized he had probably made it out already and that I was getting myself hopelessly lost. I was already disoriented. I had no idea how to get back to the heart of the maze, let alone find my way out again.

I guess this was Ulric's plan. Force me to portal out of the maze. That sneaky bastard. I sat down on the ground, ignoring the dirt and cold on my dress. I closed my eyes again and began to think.

Clearly it wasn't enough to just feel the fear and adrenaline, that only worked when I was in the moment and when I was near way lines. Visualizing didn't work either, but it made the concept of an inanimate hole in space and time more manageable. If neither of these things were enough, then maybe I had to try to use them together.

I must have been in the maze for hours with my eyes screwed tight as I focused on the feelings and the pure desire that I wanted, no I needed to create a portal. At the same time I focused on the tingling of the magic within my own body and picture pushing that out into the air in front of me. Once there I pretended that the magic was an extension of my hands, and like Ulric's wind, I used the magic to pull open a hole in the fabric of space. A small bead of sweat erupted on my forehead during this step, almost as if there was resistance to the pulling magic.

Lastly, I pictured the entrance to the maze clear in my head. It was the same way I pictured scenes to be painted. I focused on the color of the leaves and grass, and the colors of the surroundings. I saw the shadows and the highlights of the scene as well as the odd flower that I had scene when entering. The multi colored grey and beige stones stood in sharp contrast to the green of the foliage. That was the scene, that was my destination.

A flash of gold light erupted against my eyelids and I opened them, somewhat dazed. I had been sitting with my eyes closed for so long I felt disoriented and didn't even know if the shimmering wave before me that now had a golden glow was real.

It looked just like every other time I had seen it, a portal. The heat on the road wave was back and it was here. I reached out a tentative hand to the portal and then every so carefully dipped my finger into the waving energy.

With my newfound knowledge of magic I could feel the way it tickled against my skin. It almost felt like water. I stuck my entire hand through and it disappeared through the portal. I had done it, I had really done it.

I couldn't help the stupid grin on my face as I leaned forward and crawled on my hands and knees through the small portal. As my head poked through I recognized the entrance to the maze and Ulric standing to the side with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Now I see something," he mocked. "It took you long enough." He walked to me and held out a hand, which I took gratefully. Ulric easily pulled me to my feet and held onto my hand a little longer than was necessary. And longer and I would have been blushing like a little school kid.

Ignoring the way his skin felt like magic with the tingles and everything against mine I said, "I finally did it."

"Yes, I was beginning to wonder if you were going to die in there. It was taking so long."

"Thanks," I said flatly, a small bite of annoyance in my tone.

"You did very good Amberleigh," he said sincerely. "As I said, that is not easy to do."

"It really wasn't. Let's hope I can do it again and I wasn't just a one hit wonder."

"A one hit wonder?" Ulric looked down to me confused.

I chuckled. "It's a human phrase for artists who only make one really good work and then are mostly irrelevant again."

"Humans are quite strange."

"Everyone is strange Ulric, human, or Elf, or anything else. We all have our own quirks."

"You have many of these quirks."

"Yes I do, but I have quirks and I can portal now." I laughed as we walked back up to the palace. The sun was at our backs and the day felt good. I had done something; I had accomplished something great. Today was a good day.