‎Chapter 17: Lights of distant worlds

Leo had taken his laptop to Café Fraktal to get out of his room for a change. Almost all of his projects had somehow got stuck and without a little inspiration or new ideas, he was getting nowhere. Samantha had just come back and placed a large cup of black coffee in front of him: "Here you go. Black and with lots of sugar. Just the way you like it."

"Thanks." He nodded at her absently while his attention returned to the screen with its dimensional mathematical equations and a probability matrix. Without taking his eyes off the screen, he grabbed the cup, lifted it and put it to his mouth. He drank and immediately began to cough. With great difficulty, he managed to avoid spitting coffee all over his monitor: "What's that brew?!"

"Decaffeinated coffee. You're clearly drinking too much espresso."

Leonardo looked at his cup again in disgust and then pushed it a little away from him across the table: "I'm not thirsty at the moment anyway. After all, there's no point in staying awake. I'm at the end of my ideas. Pretty much all approaches have come to a dead end. I couldn't find any new sources of Gallifreynium and even if we did, I don't know how to save our friends with it. My friend Archeron unobtrusively sounded out Professor Majere about Carcerus. When he casually remarked that the missing might have landed there, he completely lost it. If I understood Archeron correctly, his solution to this case was some kind of explosion spell that he could send along with the summons to put his daughter out of her misery. He said Majere had hinted at something, that it would even shred her soul to prevent a possible rebirth there."

"Okay, that really doesn't sound like the solution we were hoping for."

"I wish someone had some good news for a change..." Leo hadn't really meant it as a request, but one of the students at the next table turned around: "Well, the hologram disco ball you built with your buddies works great. What a great show last night!"

"Thank you. That's... nice."

A blonde with a stubbly haircut and about a dozen too many piercings for Leo's taste nodded in agreement: "Especially the hologram of the city center. That was really cool! With all the glowing mystical symbols and everything. Totally rad!"

Leo nodded, grinning a little unsettled by so much attention and was about to turn back to Samantha to continue the conversation when he suddenly stopped and turned back to the next table, "Wait, what hologram of the city?"

The blonde gesticulated wildly with her hands: "It was around 02.00 yesterday morning when the DJ finally played some really groovy rhythms. Scooter might be a bit older, but it's just so cool! Anyway, everything was still full of colorful lights, balls and twinkling stars, but then everything suddenly swirled around during the song 'Was kostet der Fisch' and buildings emerged from the ground. Right down to the last detail. Only slightly transparent and fluorescent from the inside out. Absolutely gigantic. And then these mystical symbols... Like a swirl of red signs. The atmosphere as everyone danced through the illusionary street canyons was breathtaking!"

"But the system only generates completely random hologram fragments. The likelihood of anything meaningful coming out of it... Was it really our city or some city?"

"Ours! Man, I recognize the bus station with the ice rink and the square Bauhaus-style cube with the city library. Even the snack stand was recognizable."

"Can you draw one of the symbols?" She looked around indecisively for a moment, then asked around briefly until someone could lend her a pen. On a napkin, she carefully scribbled an intricate symbol that looked a bit like a lying 'K' and a few similar signs. Leonardo had never seen any of them. Nor, apparently, had the magic that usually translated everything on the university grounds. He hurriedly said goodbye to Sam and then ran out of the building, panting, to get to the dormitory with his room.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, he heard shots and explosions in the distance. He pulled out his PDA and called up the current calendar of events. But he couldn't find anything suitable for the current day. For a moment, he wondered whether it might be a real shooting. Then he saw janitor Schickelgruber running around the corner with an assault rifle. Behind him followed a complete team from the Faculty of Tactical Overkill. They were all carrying heavy weapons, flak jackets, combat boots and combat knives. They were also running the full program: Jumping from cover to cover. Rolling. Scanning the surroundings with weapons ready to fire. Keep running.

In a war zone in the middle of Baghdad, that would probably have looked cool. It looked pretty silly in the university courtyard with the astonished students at the hot dog stand, the couple who had just been sitting on the park bench in a tight embrace and the other normal background events. A mage who had just been busy decorating the equestrian statue on the courtyard fountain with illusionary underwear broke off his spell and instead created darkness around his position. In a circular area, the light seemed to literally seep into the ground. Some of the students cheered on the Overkill team, others took cover for safety. Leo shook his head. If Schickelgruber was commanding the bunch, it could only be a security exercise of some kind. Like last month, when he had chased the students and lecturers of the chemistry faculty across the courtyard to the prescribed meeting point in case of fire alarms during the fire drill. He shook his head and walked on. Someone would tell him later in the week what had happened again.

*

As he had expected, the computer was already booted up when he arrived at his apartment and the flatbed scanner was already waiting. Zunylamien17 followed him with the webcam as soon as he entered the room. Wordlessly, because the AI had surely already heard everything, he placed the sketch on the scanner and closed the cover. Seconds later, the symbols appeared on the screen. Before he could ask whether the AI could do anything with them, some of the lines shifted, were straightened, some were shortened a little, some were lengthened a tiny bit. One of the symbols was rotated by 90 degrees. "You obviously know the writing. What's that?"

"Voorish trade language. Since they were red, they were warning signals. The vortex, or rather spiral, arrangement fits the equations. A warning of a dimensional distortion. Usually a sign of the emergence of one of my builders' ships. After-effects of a dimensional jump engine. From the number described, however, it should be an unusually strong disturbance."

"What kind of language is Voorisch? Who speaks it?"

"The Voor. A highly developed alien race. Very old. Except for a few survivors who were able to flee in spaceships from the destruction of their worlds and colonies, they were completely wiped out. Question: How could Voor signals appear in a disco?"

"Could it be something else that happens to look like this?"

"Negative. Would you like a probabilistic mathematical justification?"

"No. I trust you."

"Thank you. However, my reasoning also includes the presumably relevant fact that I picked up signals from a quantum resonance scanner at the same time. Apart from my builders, only a few races have this technology. Including the Voor."

"The part we used to build a hologram disco ball came from one of the wrecked spaceships from the Faculty of Interdimensional Transport. Horst said it was part of the bridge. Everything else was pretty much destroyed, though."

"An extremely risky approach."

"Why risky?"

"Their scanner technology, which allowed them to see enemies coming early despite the best cloaking shields, was the Voor's greatest tactical advantage. It was the only way they could survive for so long. My builders rarely managed to recover one of these devices. And if they did, they didn't dare open it."

"Why? Afraid you won't be able to screw it back together?"

"Negative. The benefit factor of the slightly better technology was not related to the risk of triggering the fuse."

"A self-destruct mechanism?"

"The only research facility that ever tried to open a Voor tactical computer scanner was melted to cinders. Twelve kilometers in radius."

"Didn't they have security bunkers sunk deep into the ground or something?"

"Yes, two kilometers deep in the granite ground, reinforced with 26m-thick steel walls. Plus containment fields."

"And the base was completely destroyed anyway."

"Positive."

Leo swallowed hard. They had transported this thing across a city in a rickety car without much protection. And hung it up in a damn disco as decoration...

"The drone is now in position."

"What, drone? Why?"

"I sent them off when I heard your conversation in the café. The fuel supply is 87% depleted. You'll have to pick them up later."

"Okay. I'm sure Cerebrantis will lend me his car later." Leonardo was a little taken aback.

An image appeared on the screen, which Leo recognized from the status indicators as the image from the on-board camera of the drone he had built for Zunylamien17. He could still see the end of a risky maneuver in which it slid through an air shaft and rammed the cover to get in. The drone shot through and lurched for just a moment before stabilizing and then transitioning into a controlled landing. Two corridors further on, it arrived in the room where the sphere was hanging from the ceiling.

"I'm starting to build a connection."

Signal sequences glided across the screen. Then holographic symbols flashed in the air around the sphere. Much more sharply defined and clearer than the random signals that had previously appeared.

"Wait! Can't it explode if you send the wrong signals?"

"Negative. The self-destruct mechanism only triggers when an attempt is made to open the shell. Due to the monocrystalline titanium steel armor, accidental damage is very unlikely. My builders cracked the signal code a long time ago." A short pause followed. "Access to log file has been granted. Data is being displayed."

The room in which a pack of teenagers usually swayed to the rhythm of modern music was filled with a hologram of the city. Glowing cubes represented the outlines of the individual buildings. Neon yellow lines indicated power and telephone cables, even if they ran under the street surface. Neon blue lines signaled water and sewage pipes right into the buildings. Purple lights showed... Leonardo had to look for a while before he recognized a system. Radio signals. The bright lights on the high masts and tall buildings were transmitters of the mobile phone network, the weaker lights belonged to the WLAN networks in the individual apartments. Moving lights that flashed sporadically were probably cell phones.

Then a glow appeared in the hologram. A black light-like purple glow from outside the current field of view. Before Leo could prompt him, Zunylamien17 zoomed out so that a larger part of the city became visible. Thus, a pillar of light could be seen erupting from a mansion in the wealthier neighborhood of the city. Numerous symbols indicated the strength and nature of the dimensional breakthrough that had taken place there. Then the pillar of light shrank again. A flashing icon of Zunylamien17 drew Leo's attention to a much larger pillar of light located within the university grounds. Apart from this, the entire university campus was only vaguely visible in the hologram. The magical and technical protective devices were obviously even working against this alien scanner. Nothing happened for a while and Leo noticed that the time display on the edge of the screen was fast-forwarding. Several tiny dimensional breakthroughs appeared around the university. For a few seconds at a time, then they disappeared and reappeared in a different place. Then the column of light in the university flared up and numerous new incomprehensible symbols appeared on Voorish.

"Can you play the smaller dimensional disturbances again more slowly Zunylamien?"

"Positive. But I can also offer you a ready-made analysis right away."

"Shoot."

"Firing the ship's guns would not bring any recognizable advantages in this context."

"I meant... Explain it to me."

"Analysis follows: The dimensional breakthrough at the Academy is the portal to the Library of Alexandria. The second one outside the Academy has a much more complex modulation, but is significantly weaker. There is a 91% probability that it is a form of communication."

"Dimensional radio? Awesome! I thought that was completely impossible!"

"It requires extremely complex technologies that clearly exceed the university's capabilities. But it is possible. Analysis continues: There is a clear correlation between the pattern of dimensional breakthroughs and the modulations of the link. The dimensional radio link coordinates a direction finding. All minor breakthroughs appear closer to the target portal. After the fifth cycle, they hit the portal exactly and modulate the target location through an overlay. From that moment on, the portal led to Carcerus, not the university."

"Someone helped the bastards in Carcerus from here? I knew it! Where is this radio?"

"The address is registered under Professor R. Majere."

"Majere? But... That makes no sense!"

"Maybe we should ask him?" Sam's voice sounded amused and Leo jerked around, startled, "Where did you come from?"

"I ran after you. Thought you might need some help. Besides, your 'I-must-get-away-we'll-see-you-later' sounded a bit... panicky. Almost like the 'crap-I'm-about-to-blast-the-universe' inflection."

"How long have you been here? And how did you even get here..." He glanced at the door and remembered not even closing it properly behind him out of sheer excitement.

"So, are we going straight to the professor?"

"Sure. He'll immediately admit that he accidentally beamed his daughter into the dungeon dimension."

"I can't imagine he knows about it. Besides, Jane was at the time..." He turned his head to the screen to ask Zunylamien17, but then swallowed the question and looked at Samantha a little sheep-eyed.

"Oh, don't pretend now. I've seen you talking to your computer for the last ten minutes. I may not be as tech-savvy as you, but I think I know an artificial intelligence when I see one. Did you program that?"

Leo glanced apologetically at the webcam: "Not my fault! You could have warned me that someone was there!"

"The overall effectiveness of our activities is hampered by secrecy. The inauguration of Samanael will increase our effectiveness by at least 12%."

Leonardo sighed with relief. Upsetting the AI would have been the last thing he needed right now. Then his brow furrowed: "Samanael? Does he mean you Samantha?"

She scowled at the screen where, as if on cue, her school record popped up. "It would probably increase our effectiveness further if I uncovered some secrets too." She beckoned towards the screen, "Go ahead and read."

"The original student file was entered directly into the university database by unknown means. It was corrected again by direct order of Rector Argus. New updated file follows:

Official name: Samantha Brenner (nickname: Sam)

Real name: Samanael, angel of the choir of seraphim.

Mission: Currently traveling on a direct mission from Eli, Archangel of Creation. Details of the mission are unknown.

Hazard classification: Low.

Known abilities: Musical, able to detect lies, undefined clairvoyance abilities, possibly shapeshifting.

Previous unusual activities: Illegal entry into the Faculty of Transdimensional Transportation."

Leonardo's disbelieving gaze turned to Samanael: "Angels?"

"Yep."

"With wings and stuff?"

"Sometimes. That's what shape-shifting is."

"On behalf of an archangel? What does an archangel want from our university? Can you tell me what your mission is?"

"The university is strange. Go and see what's going on. Watch out for the students. And have fun."

"This is your secret mission?"

"Yep. Eli is the coolest archangel since the beginning of creation."

"You're an angel?"

"We've already had that question."

Leo rubbed his head: "I know. But I think I need a few more repetitions before I get that into my brain."

"Can we play this out on the way to Majere?"

Leonardo opened his mouth and closed it again. Then he nodded: "Let's get this over with."

*

"A device that transmits messages according to Carcerus? In my apartment? Have your cordless phones fried your brains?" Professor Majere's roar made the two students' ears whistle. He closed and opened his right hand and a glowing ball of fire took shape in it.

Leo held the screen of his PDA in front of him like a sign and spoke very quickly: "There! That's the detail enlargement. It's in the basement of the building. In the northeast room!"

The professor stared at him for a long moment, then the fireball fizzled out in his closing hand and he beckoned them into his apartment.

Silently, he led them to a staircase that led to the cellar. Flaring bluish runes lit the way for them. At the bottom, a massive iron door blocked their way. No lock, no bolt. A whispered word from the professor caused the frame to flash with red light, then the door opened. Inside, runes similar to those on the way down flared up. Only this time in warm sunlight. The three-meter-high walls were covered to the ceiling with bookshelves. Only the opposite wall was empty, except for a large alcove containing a single, huge book on a reading stand. The floor in front of it was blocked in a semi-circle by a double spell circle, the runes of which flared viciously as she entered. Majere strode purposefully towards the huge grimoire and opened the cover, which was bound in green, somehow scaly leather. He spoke a formula and the students saw glowing runes appear in the air above the book. He waved energetically through the runes several times and each time their arrangement changed. Leo couldn't even make out the language the professor was using to display his clairvoyance magic information. With a stony face, he turned around and stepped between the two students, who just managed to dodge to the side. Majere raised both hands and cast another spell.

Nothing happened for a few anxious heartbeats, then a translucent figure with blond curls stepped into the room... right through the professor. Leo whistled through his teeth, impressed. Just off the cuff, incorporating the space-time coordinates for a look into the past into a formula. That was more than impressive. As Sam's elbow dug into his side, he refocused on current events. He recognized Jane Majere in the shadow that wandered unerringly across the room. She took one of the books from the shelf and, flipping it open, revealed that it was a camouflaged casket instead of a book. She took out a pinch of metallic powder or sand, put the casket back and went to the grimoire. Her lips moved silently as she opened it and sprinkled the powder on the blank pages. It dissolved glitteringly and the book was enveloped in a ghostly glow. Characters appeared on the empty pages. Her lips moved and new characters appeared. It almost seemed like a dialog. Then the book turned the pages of its own accord, swirling and showing Leo clearly recognizable spell definitions. Jane read as she ran her finger under the characters and the writing disappeared again behind her finger. At first, Leo felt a little childish running his finger along the lines, but then he realized that reading each line in the correct order was probably the safest method. If the words disappeared once they had been read, it was probably not advisable to accidentally slip a line. He turned in astonishment as next to him Professor Majere lost his usual self-control and began to curse loudly in a very vivid and colorful manner. A flash of lightning swept away the illusion of the past: "That foolish girl! She has inherited her mother's temperament and complete lack of common sense... and my delusions of grandeur."

At the last words, he suddenly began to grin proudly: "I had forbidden her to use the grimoire. I also didn't think she'd find the records of my spell circle and analyze them well enough to break it. And that she also found my private supply of Gallifreynium dust. Impressive. She must have secretly read through and translated countless of my records and notes. Then she must have completed the rest of the information herself by studying it in the university library, because of course I didn't leave any instructions anywhere." He looked sternly at the book: "I should have destroyed you while I still had the chance."

Glowing runes appeared on the cover, which the two students could also read with the help of the veil:

"Unlimited power for the victim of a small, unimportant world. And you rejected it. Your choice was... foolish."

"What kind of book is that?" Leo couldn't stop himself from interfering.

"The Green Grimoire. A book written by one of the gods of my world. It contains, like each of these gods themselves, a part of a Primordial's power. A sliver of his consciousness. A spark of his unlimited power. Only another Primordial can damage it. I can only hide it from the world and lock it away. At least that's what I thought I could do. But it has reached out into the world."

The glowing runes flashed and attracted attention:

"And I found your daughter. What irony! She solved all the mysteries all by herself. It was only when she opened me up again and fed me the eternal substance that I was finally able to make contact again."

"To your maker."

"No. He's splintered like all the Primordials in the world of the Great Game. Disintegrated into whole pantheons of silly mythical creatures. I called out to a truly powerful one. One of the Primordials who would never divide their power. One who would never make himself so vulnerable."

"Carcerus."

"Yes!"

Leonardo and Samanael looked from one conversation partner to the other with fascination. They almost looked like spectators at a really exciting tennis match.

Despite Sam's attempt to warn him, Leo couldn't stop himself from interfering: "You located our portal and passed on its coordinates to another dimension. And then you acted as a homing beacon yourself."

"Your words are strange to me, but in your limited mind I recognize the truth of your theory."

The professor shouted a magical command so loudly and angrily that the students flinched. Leo threw himself back a step and hit the back of his head roughly against the wall. A wave of magical energy rushed over the book, swept away the glowing runes and then closed it with a loud bang. The spell circle glowed so strongly that the stone slabs around it began to smoke. Then Majere's power seemed to pour out of him like air from a leaking tire. He slowly sank to his knees, propped himself up on the ground with his arms and hung his head. His voice was barely audible: "She's in Carcerus..."

Samanael carefully placed a hand on his shoulder, ready to jump back immediately if he overreacted: "We can help her. We don't know exactly how yet, but..."

"I know how I'm going to help her." He stood up again. Determination furrowed deep into his features and his eyes seemed to glow under the opaque gold mirrored sunglasses: "She won't suffer another day in this hell."

Leo took a step towards him: "I've already done some calculations, but we haven't come up with all the details for the way back yet..."

"There's no way back." Majere opened a secret compartment by pressing against two book spines. From it he took the casket from the time vision earlier, which was filled with golden-orange metallic sand. Leo's eyes popped out of their sockets when he saw the contents: "That's enough Gallifreynium to conduct several more experiments. Why did we have to painstakingly collect every gram?"

The professor pressed the cup into his hand impassively: "Unfortunately, it's not as much as it looks. To use the grimoire, you only need a tiny amount of the eternal metal. An alloy of brass and copper has proven to be the most effective. Only one part in a hundred is made of what you call Gallifreynium. If I had that much of it, I would have made it available to you long ago."

"I'm sorry. I..."

"Never mind. It's enough to open the portal briefly. Carcerus has properties I know. I will find my daughter and send her a cataclysm sphere."

Sam was intrigued, "This will bring her back?"

"It will kill her and everyone around her, tear her soul apart, burn her body to dust and spread it through the tunnels. She will no longer have to suffer..."

An imperious gesture caused one of the floor tiles to shatter and a ball of matt white material floated upwards from the opening that became visible there into his outstretched hand. The air seemed to cloud around the sphere. The angel recoiled. The aura of death, evil and the hunger for destruction concentrated in the object and held only tenuously captive was almost palpable to her. To her senses, it was the sound of fingernails on a slate, the smell of rotting flesh and sulphur and the surprising sensation of touching something slimy. She couldn't speak, she could barely breathe. Desperately, she turned her head to Leonardo and looked pleadingly into his eyes. Fortunately, he understood what she wanted. He cleared his throat, swallowed, cleared his throat again: "Professor... That's not necessary. We're sure we'll find a way out of this."

"The will of the Primordial holds everyone captive there. There is no way out."

‎ "But we've had contact! Norman, Jane and Horst are fine! They're looking for a talisman that blocks the perception of this Carcerus. If they get close enough, we could get them back without him being able to do anything about it."

"A talisman? Tell me everything. Don't leave anything out."

In a torrent of words, Leo recounted everything they had experienced and found out so far. Most of the time he stared nervously at the white ball in Majere's hand. Samanael intervened twice when Leonardo's torrent of words became too incomprehensible and erratic, but otherwise held back.

The professor obviously saw no reason to move the conversation to a more comfortable environment. In any case, he made no attempt to do so. He also ignored the students' very careful, subtle hints in this direction. Instead, he kept asking precise questions until he was sure he had all the information: "And when did you originally intend to inform me?"

"As soon as... As soon as we have a solution." Leonardo prepared to jump through the door while Sam spoke to him.

"Why only then?" The professor had long since regained complete control of himself. His voice sounded completely neutral and emotionless.

"Leonardo thought they would go mad with rage. He was also convinced they would kill us to keep the secret. So that no one could summon their daughter as a demon."

Leo wished he could see the professor's eyes through his sunglasses. He couldn't make out anything from his voice. And he would have been really grateful for a little warning in case the magician went crazy after all.

"This theory is not without a certain logic. It is, of course, completely wrong."

"Of course. Completely wrong." Leo forced the corners of his mouth into a tense smile. Even though his facial muscles were soon aching and the professor would have no problem seeing through him.

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

Samanael pressed his mouth together in slight agony.

Majere stared at the two of them in turn. Then he nodded, "We'll try your plan. As soon as this plan is ready."

He simply let go of the white ball. The two students jumped back. But the ball hovered calmly in the air for just a moment, then slowly sank back into the hole in the floor. The splinters of the floor panel bounced from all over the room back to their exact original position. After a few seconds, there was no longer a crack or gap in the floor.

Samael shook it slightly: "I'm glad that thing's gone. It sent shivers down my spine just looking at that orb. If something had gone wrong with it, I doubt we would have made it out of the house in time."

The professor looked at her silently for a moment. Then he shook his head slightly, his face impassive: "Nothing goes wrong with me. And if it had, you would have had to leave town already."

Leonardo blanched a little. He knew that the professor was not prone to exaggeration.

Majere finally moved the meeting to a place where people could sit down. Into his very comfortable living room. An open fireplace, animal skins on the walls and floor and leather wing chairs. A few incense candles spread a slightly spicy, calming scent. Middle Ages meets Sherlock Holmes' London. Leonardo was convinced that some interior designers would have spontaneously had convulsions and palpitations at this clash of different styles.

The professor casually waved a hand and three of the wing chairs floated across the thick plush carpet all by themselves and positioned themselves in a triangle. The three of them took their seats and for a few minutes they were all thoughtfully silent. The professor reopened the conversation: "What exactly are you planning to do now?"

Leonardo suppressed the urge to call up sketches, calculations and graphics on his PDA and show them to the professor. He was attached to the device and the professor hated computers. He probably didn't even light his house with electricity. At the thought, Leo looked around briefly and looked at the chandeliers on the walls. Gas lamps. He immediately thought of seven regulations in the modern building code that had prohibited such things for decades. Gas pipes criss-crossed the building. And he didn't have to look to know that there were neither gas detectors nor the prescribed fire alarms. Leo looked back at the professor and realized that he had just been mentally distracted for a full minute and that Majere was looking at him impatiently. And if you could see any emotion in him...

"At the moment we're at a bit of an impasse... but that's really only temporary! Of course, we know exactly what to do next. First we'll wait until we get the signal from Jane's cell phone. Then we know that the missing people are within the talisman's sphere of influence. We open a portal and presto! They're back!"

"Praematter." Majere whispered the word thoughtfully to himself.

"What?"

"Praematter. A remnant of matter from the time before the Primordial Gods sacrificed part of their power to create Mandatus. And before he established cosmic order over the multiverse on their behalf. It still contains a remnant of the original chaos. There are countless of these shards, but they can be anywhere, in the depths of space, at the bottom of the oceans or deep inside a planet. No power of the Primordials, no telepathy, clairvoyance or magic can locate them."

"Do each of them have the same properties? In other words, do they interfere with the gods' perception?" Leo was already thinking hard about what kind of sensors would be best able to detect this pre-matter.

"As the remnants of a completely chaotic pre-universe... Not really. But of course I've never seen this substance myself. Even the legends about it are very vague. But it simply can't be anything else. Only the will of another Primordial can interfere with a god's perception. And any of them would notice and recognize that immediately. An area that simply falls completely out of all perception, that can only be praematter."

Samanael intervened: "Does that help us?"

The professor thought for a moment and then shook his head: "I think... no. I know of no way to track down or utilize this material. But I'm afraid there's a hole in your plan."

"Which one?"

"Even without the active influence of Carcerus, there is still a massive energy gap between his world and ours. We are at a lower Warshok level, but according to my own experiments, Carcerus is artificially lowering the level in the wide area around our university. We have barely felt the effect so far, as the rotation of the Earth on its axis and its movement around the sun means that we keep falling out of a zone. With the help of this dragon-cursed grimoire, he has certainly already been able to calculate part of the orbit. Now that we have interrupted this beacon, he will have to make numerous test dimensional transports. This will slow him down, but in the foreseeable future he will have calculated the path of our university through his universe and will keep his area of artificial level reduction permanently at our position. If he hasn't already done so. Even if we can open a portal, it will only work in one direction."

Leonardo swallowed hard while Samanael struggled to keep up mentally. Leo's hand jerked back to his PDA, but he postponed his desire to do the math and create a mathematical model until later: "Speaking of dragon curses... The description of that dragon that appeared and disappeared there... It was talking about some kind of glowing tunnel. That doesn't sound like any kind of portal I know of."

"It's the same description as in all real stories. These bastards are a plague that appear everywhere and disappear before they can be exterminated. They come, get what they want and leave again."

"Get what you want? Nobody mentioned anything about the dragon taking anything. Never mind, we'll be fine..."

"Stop!" Majere interrupted Leonardo. He leaned forward excitedly: "Are you sure nothing was stolen? People, raw materials, plants... anything?"

"Not as far as Norman told me."

"Summon him. Make sure he gets the full story. Dragons don't just appear for fun. They destroy and terrorize. But always with a deeper purpose. Always with a precise goal they want to achieve."

Sam sounded confused, "I think we're getting off topic here. Best we..."

"No! That's important! If the dragon didn't steal anything and there was no other reason for its presence, then this tunnel may have been opened by the preematter."

Leonardo shook his head: "Dimensional portals don't just open like that."

"That is correct. But I've long suspected that dragons don't use normal portals. Otherwise they would have been persecuted and wiped out long ago. They are hated and feared throughout the multiverse. Over the millennia, someone would have found a way to exclude them from their world for all time or to follow them. I would have found a way to follow them and exterminate them."

Sam was confused, "What else could it be?"

"Something new. Something unknown. Secret paths."

"How can there be secret paths through the multiverse? You can't dig tunnels."

"Wormholes, perhaps?" Leonardo sounded uncertain.

"Worms dig holes through the earth. Not in other dimensions."

"No, I mean... Never mind. I'll check it out later."

"You're going to summon this Norman in particular now and grill him about the dragon legend. This large nomadic clan must have had some powerful mages. After all, this Lord Mage emerged from it and from your description he made a highly skilled impression. Longevity is not easy to achieve. No matter what method you use."

Samanael had already thought about this too: "How do you think he managed that?"

"From the type of magic he uses most often, the creation of artificially altered beings like gargoyles and necromancy to raise golems and undead, I would guess he creates life-sized homunculi. Clones, if you prefer the term. When his current body gets old or injured, he simply transfers his soul into one of his homunculi."

"Wow! Artificial beings without a soul as a substitute body. Cool!"

"They are created as life, with everything that is necessary to sustain life, intelligence and consciousness. Of course these beings have a soul. However, this is suppressed during the transfer and undoubtedly destroyed. The whole procedure is in an ethical gray area. That is why it is not taught at university."

Samanael almost stopped spitting: "Gray area?!? That's the darkest black magic!"

"A matter of opinion, as I said. Now get out and carry out your task! I'll do some studying in the meantime."

"Because of the Gallifreynium..."

"Right... Here, these are five incantation candles. The wax is infused with ore particles." He led her to the exit and was about to turn around and close the door when he remembered something else: "Just a moment! Neither of you, as far as I know, are taking one of the lectures on summoning techniques. Who helped you?"

Leonardo was about to reply that he had simply learned that from books, but Samanael interrupted him: "Rodrik Bannwäldner. A student from the..."

"Rodrik? I know Rodrik! He's in my advanced lectures. In the mage academies of most other worlds, he would have been burned at the stake as a preventive measure. He doesn't even have the slightest ethical principles. He is unscrupulous, greedy for power and boundlessly curious."

Leonardo had slumped further and further at the words: "It was... Unfortunately, we had..."

Majere interrupted him by placing a hand on his shoulder: "An excellent choice. Rodrik can imagine exactly what I will do to him if he even looks at my daughter indecently. And he can keep secrets. As long as you don't let anyone else in on it, there shouldn't be any problems."

He gave Leo an encouraging pat on the shoulder and then closed the door behind him.

Samanael had to support Leo a little as he made his way with weak, shaky legs: "Let's get Rodrik. We need him for the summoning." Leo could only nod weakly.

*

The professor locked the door behind the students and also locked it with a heavy iron bolt. He then collected a few items in the building. He fetched a small folding table, set it up next to the grimoire and spread the items out on it. Then he reached into the container of gallifreynium-containing dust with two fingers and rubbed them together until they held only one or two grains of dust. He flung them onto the book and a very faint glow shimmered across the cover. His gaze fell on the tools he had prepared on the folding table: sharp knives, eels, scissors, pliers for eyelets... the equipment of a bookbinder. He picked up one of the smaller knives and then turned to the grimoire: "You and I are going to have a long talk now. And don't try to pretend you can't hear me. You can't break through dimensional boundaries with that tiny amount, but you're conscious."

Most people would assume that books cannot feel fear or pain. They are wrong.

*

The principal tossed the elephant gun to his butler: "Here. Take it to someone who knows how to use it and have it cleaned and polished. And order another 200 rounds of ammunition. Oh... And I really need a travel catalog with hunting trips. You know, the kind where you can hunt lions or elephants in Africa."

His servant nodded respectfully and hurried away. The principal threw himself into a comfortable armchair in his office and rested his legs on the low side table. That had been rather amusing after all. The last mandates, pursued by a few particularly enthusiastic students, had been chased out of the grounds and disappeared into the nearby forest. In the middle of it all, the yellow and red ones had simply turned around and walked away without warning. Presumably the shooting had become too violent for them or all the shouting had endangered their meditative attitude. Or something like that. Who understood them? Next he would try to contact them and outbid any offer of future cooperation from the mandates. They always needed something. Money, exotic drugs, protection from persecution by some conservative group or something really unusual. He would find something.

Lord, I'm afraid I have some bad news.

I'm in a really good mood right now. I don't want any bad news right now! The principal closed his eyes and demonstratively snuggled deeper into the armchair.

As you wish.

There was mental silence for a minute. Then Argus straightened up and thought intently: "Okay, tell me your news.

One of the students is missing. In the memoirs of a cleaner, I could see someone in a yellow robe carrying him hurriedly towards the wall, bound and gagged and thrown over his shoulder.

Principal Argus leaned back in his chair, relaxed.

I thought it was something serious. We have enough students. They could have just asked. I'm sure we could have come to an agreement that way. Which one did they borrow?

Wu Tang. Asian ethnological origin, very pleasant and reassuring mental image.

As if kicked by a giant, the principal flew out of his chair, knocking it backwards so that it crashed against the wall. In his excitement, he began to talk loudly to the empty air, which would have been quite confusing for a hypothetical observer, as the veil's answers could not be heard:

"You snatched my Enlightened One? By Eris, I should have guessed that! Then it wasn't just any Enlightened One, but their religious leader. Crap! I never asked him which order he came from. I was far too happy to find one of them and persuade him to study with us.

What is an enlightened person?

"An anomaly. A person whose soul is always reborn immediately upon death. Instead of... well whatever normally happens. An Enlightened One also receives their full accumulated memories. Mercifully, they usually can't access them until puberty. Babies with the knowledge of umpteen lives would certainly be extremely annoyed."

Why are you so interested in him?

"Because he can do things."

Things?

"Well... Things. He has achieved complete harmony with his surroundings. This causes an incredibly unerring intuition. Put an alien artifact from a completely alien alien race in his hands. Something that would normally take years of research to even begin to decipher its function. An enlightened person will pick it up, intuitively know what it's good for and how exactly to use it. Sometimes better than its creators. Give him a scroll in an unknown language and he will translate it for you in a way that makes perfect sense. With all the undertones and intended ambiguities. I've had him interpret the references for some of our employees. It's impressive what an experienced HR manager can do even in a language the reader knows well. The guy was an ace up my sleeve for all eventualities. I want him back!"

Why did they have to kidnap him by force if this is his own order?

"Good question. But he once mentioned that he'd had enough of the endless meditation and chanting and just wanted to have some fun. After I discovered him shyly at the bar in a pub in Hong Kong, I bribed him with a selection of sweets and two strippers. And the promise that he could study whatever he wanted here. Without exams."

He opened the door to his outer office and called out to his secretary to cancel all appointments. Then he set about planning a search operation. But there was no hurry. Before the matter of the three missing students had been resolved, the university's resources were already too stretched. He also had to clean up everything after the attack and develop a new security concept for the campus.

*

"...Through the space between the dimensions, I summon you! With the seals of magic I bind you. Hasten to serve me! Appear, demon Norman Zimmermann!" Rodrik lowered his arms in satisfaction and bowed to the side to reveal the pentagram. Since secrecy was no longer necessary, they had used one of the summoning rooms in the basement of the Faculty of Transdimensional Transportation. A metal incantation circle set deep into the floor with a pentagram and all the necessary signs, as well as massive candlesticks firmly attached to the floor at the five corners of the pentagram, made it impossible to accidentally break the circle. Red runes had already appeared on the entrance door at the first words of the incantation. As a warning to others not to disturb and also as a sign that the protective devices were active. Rodrik hadn't elaborated on this, but Leo relied on the fact that he already knew what he was doing. Fine, golden-orange lines flashed in the pentagram, then smoke billowed out of them, condensing into the familiar shape of Norman. Again with the small horns on his forehead, but with an unusual red skin color and huge bat wings. He looked a little disoriented for a moment, then a broad grin appeared on his face. An inhumanly wide grin that revealed greatly elongated canines. As he stepped forward to greet his friends, he swayed under the unfamiliar weight of the wings. He jerked his head around to see what was throwing him off balance and half spun in a circle. The wings unfurled, sparking on either side as they hit the edge of the summoning circle. He held still for a moment and seemed to be listening to himself. Muscles tensed slightly and relaxed again as he oriented himself in his new body. Then the wings folded back together to some extent: "Rodrik!"

"Do you like it? Along with the wings, you must have gained instinctive knowledge about flying."

"They may be big, but they'll never carry my weight in a lifetime."

"Oh yeah? Hop up."

Norman hesitated briefly while he wondered if the young summoner was joking. Then he carefully jumped upwards on the spot. His body seemed to weigh almost nothing as he floated upwards and then slowly sank back down to the ground. He walked forward to make his way to his friends, but held his hand forward just in time to avoid running fully into the spell circle. Painful sparks flew where his fingers touched the invisible boundary.

"Oh. Of course. Sorry." Rodrik pulled a special silver chalk from his pocket and drew a line across the metal spell circle. To be on the safe side, Norman first felt the air with his hand, then stepped over the mark: "Good timing guys. I was just about to fall asleep. Better than if you'd caught me in the middle of a run or while I was eating."

Samanael greeted him with an enthusiastic hug, then she smacked Rodrik in the side: "Do you always have to fool around while summoning?"

"Gallifreynium is valuable. If we're going to use some, I might as well use it for a few exercises. That's okay Norman, isn't it?"

"That's all right. But back to the seriousness of the situation: we're pretty sure we're on the right track. If nothing goes wrong, we'll have the talisman in two days. Make sure you have the portal ready then. The Gargyls accompanying us can then take it back to the Nexus themselves."

"I'm afraid there's a bit of a problem..." Leo briefly explained why a portal wouldn't work. "... and so we still need to find out how the dragons did it back then. Can you remember the story?"

"Sure. One of the Lord Mage's guards knew the story too. It was the only known appearance of dragons in all of Carcerus. Word gets around about something like that. No one knows what he wanted. In the story, everyone is amazed at this senseless cruelty. The dangerous animals there are bad enough. And when something comes from outside, it's even nastier."

"Find out where this tunnel opened up back then. Maybe you just have to take the talisman there."

"Won't the place have moved?"

"I don't know..."

"And if this tunnel doesn't open just like that?"

Leo just raised his hands in annoyance: "No idea. I have absolutely no idea. If Majere knew how vague it all is, he'd burn you all to ashes."

"What?!?"

Leo also briefly summarized this part of the events. Including the story about the Voor's tactical sensor system.

"You hung some kind of nuclear warhead as a disco ball? And let me help you do it?"

"Don't you start that too. I didn't know anything about it either, ok?"

"I hope so. Where have you put the bullet now?"

Leonardo hesitated. Norman groaned: "It's still hanging in the disco? Which I hope is at least closed now?"

"Well, not quite... I've only just found out. I've had a lot on my mind..."

"There are still random signals sparking into a nuclear bomb?"

"The explosive force is far higher than that of a nuclear bomb... Ok, ok... I know what you mean. I think I need to call someone else..."

"Do that!"

Leonardo pulled out his cell phone and called his buddy Archeron, who, despite the approaching exams, gladly agreed to make sure that the disco was closed until further notice and that someone would pick up the bullet. In compliance with all the regulations and precautions of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Service.

Norman nodded in satisfaction as Leonardo ended his call: "Okay, what else can we do?"

"Can you memorize a magic formula and pass it on to Jane?"

"By heart? The complete text and the matrix structure? Never in my life."

But you can. I'll help you.

The voice in his mind sounded clearer and louder now that he was back on campus.

"... but then again, I've never tried anything like this before. I can give it a try. Do you have the data with you?"

"I have a part on the PDA, but it's best if I show you in my room on the big screen. Come with me."

He turned to leave, but Norman stopped him: "Haven't you forgotten something?" Norman flapped his wings once demonstratively.

"Oh. That's right. That would lead to talk even here. At least you'd have a lot to listen to in the near future once you're back. Great idea Rodrik. Really well done." Leo applauded sarcastically.

Rodrik waved it off: "Don't worry, I've thought of everything." He went to Norman and grabbed the wings in two places: "You can fold them in here... Yes, just like this. And now here... Good. Now you can swing them forward and put them over your shoulders like a cape. I've got another wide raincoat here, so you can't see a thing. And the hood covers the horns."

Norman camouflaged himself as suggested: "Wouldn't it have been easier to leave out all the demon stuff? Or at least just the essentials like last time?"

"As I said, I wanted to practise with the parameters. Besides, if there's enough time, you can fly another round later. Isn't that great?"

"I don't think we'll have time for that but... Thank you. I would have really enjoyed it."

The small group walked out of the faculty building and across the courtyard. On the way, Norman saw a row of bullet holes on a wall: "Has a war broken out here that you haven't mentioned yet?"

"Nope, just an exercise by the Overkill guys. Nothing serious."

"Are they allowed to use live ammunition?"

"Of course not."

"But what... Forget it. What kind of spell do you want to give me for Jane?"

"One that can magically detect dimensional breakthroughs and latent portals by weakening dimensional boundaries."

"Good idea. Hopefully we can use it to find the place where we can use the talisman to open this dimensional tunnel, or whatever it was."

Leonardo looked as if he had been chewing on a lemon: "Yes, exactly. I love plans in which all the facts are precisely known and weighed up. With successful, extensive research into all potential problems and a systematic point-by-point plan... Unfortunately, this isn't one."

Norman pulled his hood down over his face when a younger student looked at him a little too closely as he walked past. With his raincoat, he was dressed warmer than the other students who were out and about and therefore stood out a little. Then he suddenly stopped: "That Mandatus, he supposedly created all the dimensions, didn't he?"

"Allegedly. On behalf of the other Primordial Gods. All worlds, all dimensions. The entire multiverse. Why?"

"And he's a pretty neat guy?"

"He is the order."

"Then he won't have created worlds that he can't get to if something goes wrong. If something doesn't work or something."

"And that means?" Samanael could really feel Norman's excitement. He was on the trail of something important.

"Maintenance tunnels. Even if hyperspace is blocked like in our solar system or the local primordial closes the borders, he must have a way to get there to... let's call it maintenance work. There are always reports on TV about wormholes, string theory and stuff like that. Tunnels through space. Only it would make sense that way."

Leo excitedly patted him on the shoulder: "That actually makes sense. It sounds right. In fact, it must be right! Despite all the boundaries, the dimensions can influence each other slightly. If one collapses, it could disrupt the neighboring dimensions. At least if there's an active connection or open dimensional portals or something at the time."

"Does that help us now?" Samanael looked from one of the students to the other.

Leo thought for a moment, then nodded hesitantly: "It means that the arrangement of all the entrances to these 'maintenance tunnels' will be strictly logical. Perhaps a portal from each major landmass to the center of the planet, from there to the sun and from there... probably to the center of the galaxy. Or to the center of a sector. Depending on how Mandatus organized it... I'll have to ask some geologist acquaintances. It must be a division that holds up. Maybe you just have to put the world into a coordinate grid... Anyway, the entrances to Carcerus won't move. That would be messy! This dimension doesn't move, everything is a fixed mass. No suns, no planets. Hurry up, we don't have much time left."

The three of them hurried on to Leo's apartment. He pointed to the screen of his computer, which was already displaying the thesis of the spell they were discussing: "So, sit down Norman. This is..."

"You've already prepared everything? Impressive."

"Well..."

The computer screen flashed briefly and the graphic was replaced by a large font: "Hello Norman Zimmermann."

Norman blinked, then looked at Leonardo: "Did you teach your computer to greet everyone by name? A facial recognition program in the webcam?"

"Norman, I would like to introduce you to Zunylamien17. Zunylamien17 is an AI."

"Chi? Like the stuff they always throw around in Dragonball?"

"A.I. An artificial intelligence. A computer program that thinks. And a friend of mine, so to speak."

The screen flashed briefly as the text changed: "The concept of friendship is currently still subject to a detailed cost-benefit analysis..."

Leo briefly explained how he had come to know the AI. Then he took a demonstrative look at his watch: "We still have about forty-five minutes until the summoning ends and you are pulled back to Carcerus. We should hurry slowly. Zunylamien17, please display the formula for the basic magic analysis spell and the formula for the portal search on the screen. Separated vertically, differences highlighted in color."

The differences were relatively minor and after Leo had explained them to him in detail, Norman was sure that he had understood everything important. Just the exact wording...

"It looks like Greek backwards. Only with mathematical formulas in between. I only understand the station."

"I'll be happy to explain it to you. So..."

"Give me a break. I'll just memorize the lyrics. Let's see what Jane can do with it."

He read the text slowly and carefully and then looked closely at each of the symbols and formulas. After three paragraphs, he had already forgotten the beginning and was about to start all over again.

Read on. I have anchored the visual record in the part of me that will travel with you back to Carcerus.

Norman relaxed and continued reading. When he had finished, he turned to Leo: "I think I've got it all."

"Are you sure? Don't you want to read it through again?"

"I'm sure. Can you show me another text for the big Kame-Hame-Ha?"

"What? I don't know of any spell named after the Hawaiian king."

"You know, the thing Goku always does." He demonstrated the gesture, "The big flashy energy wave that shoots out of your hands. That could really help us in Carcerus."

"I've never actually watched the show, but I know it from zapping through it. If you leave out the flailing at the beginning, it's the standard gesture for a lot of combat spells. From what I remember, the show has very vague rules for the weird powers they use. And an equally loose approach to physical laws. There's no such spell. I could go with an elemental combat spell, but I don't know what spells Jane knows well enough to build on that. The Faculty of Magic doesn't think much of putting curricula online. If she specializes in healing magic, you could try a paralysis spell."

Don't overdo it. Even my memory is not inexhaustible.

"You know, Leo, I think I'd better leave it at one line. I don't want to get things mixed up."

He grabbed his head in surprise: "I suddenly feel so dizzy."

"The incantation ends sooner than I expected. Take care Norman!"

Then the world around Norman shattered into billions of colorful shards of glass... and disappeared.