I was... really quite stressed. While he hadn't said it, it was clear that Emperor Durin was pissed. If he knew half of the secrets I was still keeping... that would be bad. For now I needed to keep my nose clean. Moreover I needed to show results, and quickly.

The next day was when things changed. When I woke up I was greeted by a guard at my door who handed me a list. There were several new rules, particularly about where I was allowed to go. The guard would be nearby at all times until the new portal tech was deemed safe. I still had privacy in my room and bathrooms and such, but I was expected not to try and slip away, that much was clear. Other than that I was to be contained to my personal quarters, the workshop where we were building the portal, and a few common areas.

I wanted to know how my elven friend was, but this seemed as not the time as possible to try and go and see him or even to inquire about how he was. There were already suspicions and now was most certainly not the time to be making any more. I'd have to apologize later, but he was sure to understand, right?

My breakfast that morning was brought to my quarters. That along with the guard screamed that I was less 'being contained temporarily to keep everyone safe' and more 'prisoner', at least the food was still good. I asked the guard if that would be the normal, since I'd rather liked going to the small dining hall here, and he nodded quietly.

After getting ready and making my way to the workshop I was met with both Dras and Selene there, neither looked particularly pleased.

"Okay, why exactly are we now under constant guard and not able to go like... anywhere?" Dras began as soon as I entered the room.

Both looked at me. It was clear that they'd talked and come to the proper conclusion that I was at least in part responsible for the current state of things. I was, but I still didn't really appreciate being blamed without any evidence.

I sighed, "Well, the emperor has come to the conclusion that the stone allowing us to make new gates might be a trap or something. My guess is that this is part of him trying to keep anything bad from happening, at least until we try out one of our gates."

"Yeah, yesterday afternoon several armed guards showed up and took the thing, telling me it was on his orders. Any clue as to why he thinks that?" Dras asked.

"I've got some ideas. That's beside the point though, until at least we show a successful trial of our gate then it has been impounded, as are we."

"I blame you for this Alana. I don't know why, but I just feel that you going to talk with him unsupervised was the cause of all this crap. I was really rather enjoying my evenings you know? There are some excellent baths here, and the library, which I can no longer access, might just be the best on the continent. So let's get to work shall we, so we can finish this shit and I can get back to not being locked up again." Selene looked sincerely irritated, for her that was odd, but she wasn't wrong.

"And what exactly am I supposed to be doing here? I never finished with the upgrade, so I can't exactly help with the building process now can I? And with my trainees now being kept away for 'safety' I'm losing time on my own work." Dras wasn't quite as mad, because he knew me better, but still frustrated by the current situation.

"Well, we've got most of the setup done at this point, but we've never actually done this before, so think of it as a test run maybe?" I tried, my voice raising up a little on the last bit since I was sorry.

"Fine, fine, let's just get to it." It all settled we got back to work on the gate pair we were making. The sooner it was done, the sooner we might be back to normal.

The days passed on. Even if we had all the materials which we could hope for and all the knowledge of what we were doing we still had to make the thing. Layered enchantments went on, and once those were done we began laying out the best possible arrangement for shielding items to put around the gates, some standard issue, some which we'd want to make ourselves. Magic, particularly the tools used for forming items seriously helped on the gate proper, but time would only tell if we succeeded in full.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Two days before our projected readiness for the first test we sent out letters to Mystien and Emperor Durin's assistants requesting an area for setup somewhere nearby. We all already knew that we wouldn't be allowed near on the first activation, but we'd still need to do setup and final checks the day of.

Far, far to the north, in a city nobody cared about, in a castle overlooking the frigid sea men sat around a table.

"My prince," one of them said, his appearance like that of a serpent. "We know that he is moving, but this, this is odd."

"I agree," one of the robed figures added. "This isn't Durin's normal behavior. He's trying to acquire lands for an embassy, and... permission for some major project."

"Do we have words on what that is? Or why in Linden? What is he doing in the City of Orders that he feels should warrant this? Why..." The young man who'd grown so much leaned over the reports, eyes flicking left and right as he considered.

"We know he plans to expand, or at least we assume it. The odd thing though is that it would be out of character to attack there. He's let the orders do much as they please; even caving to most of their demands as far as we've seen. I believe he wishes to establish contact, and perhaps something more, but I don't know what." The spymaster was very rarely so confused at such things.

The years had not been kind to Emil. His eyes had grown weary as his age finally began to catch up with him, aided by the poor weather this far north. He still looked like a snake, but rather one that needed to shed quite badly. All that aside he was still a master of his craft, even getting this much from his network had been no small thing.

The men poured over the maps and reports. Going over all of them with a critical eye. Long had the discussion of how Durin's special forces seemed to be able to be anywhere they wanted been abandoned. They knew that they could, that the most skilled of his operatives seemed to be in one city one day and halfway across his territory the next was a pressing issue though. That mobility had lost them the last war, and if they couldn't fix it, there was little hope for winning their next one.

"Track it, and find out whatever you can. If there's some advantage we might get from this, we're likely to only have once chance at it. We need to be ready."

Beyond the eastern border of The Empire of Shadows, and far to the south, nestled between a number of constantly warring city-states sat Linden, which was often named as 'The City of Orders'. Among the many lands of the human continent, it sat almost centrally, though few knew the furthest reaches of the human lands beyond a few that dwelled in this place.

This city was ruled by the various Orders of priests, and served as one of their central hubs for organization. Training happened many places, and temples were in every city of note, but this place was where major business was decided. The government offices were in the temples, each austere as befitted those who served the people.

One thing was odd though. Within the city there was one temple that bore no affiliation. All priests of the orders worked here, all of them equal. Deep within was a small, simple office. A woman entered in the standard robes of those who worked under the orders, not a priest herself, but one of the many who aided in their tasks. She placed a sealed envelope on the desk before turning to leave.

The Elder was a busy man, and had been for as long as he could really remember. Times came and went where there was more or less activity, but there was always something. He reached up and unsealed the envelope as he got to it, carefully reading. Word by word his brow furrowed, the anger leaking out.

"This reeks of that bastard," was all he said as he put it down, considering his next move.