‎Chapter 21: The long road

Horst looked around, somewhat confused. A moment ago he had been outside the mage's tower talking to the others, now he was standing here. Two floors up in a large, empty room. The walls were covered with slates, full of calculations and mathematical formulas. Curve calculations, angle measurements, trigonometric calculations and... five-dimensional algebra? Looked like his own handwriting. When he concentrated on something, it also seemed completely logical to him. He could follow the equation to the end and knew it was correct. But even for money or under threat of physical violence, he couldn't have explained the principles. Or where he had learned them. And somehow... it suddenly no longer seemed unusual to him.

"Are you sure? That's fantastic!" Jane enthusiastically took him in her arms and hugged him. He carefully put his arms around her, always aware of his physical strength. And, of course, of the fact that a beautiful woman was embracing him. Then she broke away again, patted him encouragingly on the shoulder and practically pranced to the window: "So, only three days' journey through the vein there? I was afraid the weak point where we could open the portal would be much further away. We'll be back home in a week! Showers with hot running water. Hairdressers! Real hairdressers! A manicure and fast food and proper mattresses and..."

The three of them talked for a while until the excitement died down a little and, after two hours, calm returned. However, it did not last long. The door flew open with a crash and the small, hunchbacked figure of a Vigori limped into the room: "The master wants to see you." He turned around immediately and was already through the door and a little way down the corridor when he noticed a glaring lack of footsteps following him. Surprised, almost shocked, he came back.

"You must come with me immediately! The master is waiting!"

Horst had been about to take a nap and woke up a little confused. He let out an indistinct grumble and rubbed his eyes. Norman had just swallowed the last bite of his dinner and was about to follow, but hesitated when Jane put her legs up on the table, stretched relaxed and casually replied: "Maybe we don't feel like coming."

Vigori froze and literally began to stagger in shock. He held onto the door frame with his hand with difficulty and gasped for air like a fish that had been thrown ashore.

Jane looked at him and rolled her eyes: "We'll be right there. We just want to discuss how we should proceed first."

"The master decides! The master decides what is done! No one else!" The Vigori stamped his foot impatiently, then, becoming increasingly indignant, he began to jump up and down, completely beside himself. The small protruding veins on his forehead swelled considerably. Norman jumped up from his seat, rushed to the servant and reassured him: "We're coming!" He turned around: "Let's go before he has a heart attack. The Vigori are almost certainly bred or even genetically manipulated and probably have other health problems besides the back deformities."

Jane anticipated his next words: "And it's not your fault that your master is an arrogant egomaniac. Blah blah blah..."

The small group entered the Lord Mage's reception room. He sat calmly behind his massive desk again. In his hand was an ornate goblet containing a deep red liquid, which he swirled slowly as he stared thoughtfully into the liquid: "Ah... the Freeborn. Forgive me... My studies have not allowed me the time to thank you for your excellent work. My amulet... I had already said goodbye to this place in my mind. Fire and lightning. The wrath of Carcerus that finds this place and sweeps it clean."

He put down the goblet and looked the three of them directly in the eye, one after the other: "My homeland will continue to exist now. I will continue to live here and will not be forced to wander the paths with the nomadic tribes as I did in my youth. And you will also find a new home here. You will tell me everything there is to know about the worlds beyond. Your strange form of magic. Simply everything. In return, you will have a comfortable life here. Food, shelter, security." He looked at Horst questioningly: "Women?"

The tall, otherwise imperturbable student turned deep red and fell silent.

He continued to look at Norman, who was only slightly better and raised his hand defensively: "We think we've found a way to leave Carcerus. A portal. The way the dragon entered and left this world. A friend of mine has worked out a way to open the portal from this side. Then we take an inter-dimensional path... something about wormholes and quantum strings and space-time tunnels... didn't quite get it. Anyway, then we can find our way home and then Leo will open another portal for us."

The Lord Mage shook his head sympathetically: "There is no way out of Carcerus."

Jane intervened: "So how did the dragon escape?"

"Dragons are above the rules. Nobody knows where they come from, but I personally think they came into being together with the Primordials. And thus long before Mandatus ordered the universe. And none of the legends tell of any dragons who, like the Primordials, gave up part of their power to free the multiverse from chaos and bring order."

Norman shook his head thoughtfully as he tried to remember Leonardo's information as accurately as possible. Even if the theories exceeded his scientific background by several thousand percent: "They don't come from here. Neither are we. Ours... my friend Leonardo calls it the Warshok constant... is still tuned to the homeland. When we get close to the dimensional weak point, a program Leonardo has programmed will overload the antenna's gallifreynium and drop us through the dimensional boundaries."

"No portal will open through which someone could follow you?" The Lord Mage folded his hands in front of his chest.

"If I've understood that correctly... no. Most of the interdimensional transportation methods we have at the university adjust the warshok constant to the target dimension. We don't have equipment for that. What my friend dictated to me sounded quite... improvised."

Behind the desk, he tapped his hands together thoughtfully: "Then I certainly don't see any advantage for me. So you will stay. I hope you understand that."

"No!" Jane's hand, held forward for safety, bounced against the invisible barrier as she threw herself forward to run past the desk. She didn't hurt herself that way, but she still couldn't get close enough to the Lord Mage to slap him. It didn't make her much happier: "I have no sympathy for this at all. We... want... Home!" She punctuated each of the last words with a slap against the barrier.

Norman looked back and forth between the two of them: "We could certainly find a reasonable compromise. We could send lots of books over, for example. Or we could summon one of your servants and let him take part in the lessons. You tell me his true name and we let him learn everything you want to know."

"You want to summon one of my servants again and again?"

Norman saw that he had aroused interest: "Yes of course, we just need his exact name..."

"His true name!" Jane interjected.

"... whatever... and then we can call him as often as we want."

The Lord Mage laughed humorlessly: "No dead matter can break through the borders to Carcerus without the company of a mortal soul. And your mission would not necessarily arrive here, but probably somewhere in the infinity of veins. As for your plan to teach one of my servants in your world... Any summoning of the multiverse would sweep him away. He would never stay long enough to tell me anything. A ghastly fate. With each summoning, his aura would become more and more removed from this dimension. This makes him susceptible to summoning spells, easier to summon. Every accidental reach into this world would hit him with ever greater probability. He could never escape for good, but he would suffer the bondage of a summoner over and over again. I cannot accept such a thing for my people. Not to mention, he could betray my secrets anywhere as long as he is under the compulsion of the summoning."

"But you don't know us just like that!" Horst was completely incredulous and righteously indignant.

Everyone else looked at him with slight pity.

"He can't do that... right?"

The Lord Mage leaned back and just smiled relaxedly. Jane patted Horst on the arm: "He could. But he won't."

The Lord Mage raised an eyebrow in amusement: "I won't?"

"No. You won't. I'll explain to you exactly why not. But... Only in private." She elegantly crossed her legs and leaned back, while inconspicuously holding her top slightly at the waist so that her cleavage was pulled down a little as she leaned back.

Norman wanted to object, but Jane gave him such a sharp look that he involuntarily flinched: "You two... Go! I'll sort this out!"

*

The Lord Mage relaxed as he watched the two freeborns reluctantly leave his study. He looked at the young woman lolling on the chair in front of him. Slim, firm breasts, stunning golden blonde curls. Quite attractive. Especially with that wild, indomitable character she radiated. But he hadn't grown so old falling for every pretty face. He could think of some interesting things he could do with her in his big four-poster bed. Or in other places. But when he looked into her cold eyes that her smile could never reach, each of those imaginings ended with a surprise dagger in his ribs. And it was so... uncomfortable to break in a new clone body. His current body still had back muscles that were far too untrained. It was slowly getting better, but it would take a few more months of training before he could sit for long periods without pain. On top of that, there was the uncomfortable feeling of dying every time he... well, died. Many mothers in the Nexus had beautiful daughters. But it would still be amusing to see how she tried to seduce him to get closer to him, "Well half elf, what exactly do you want to talk to me about?"

She carefully placed her hand on the magical field that separated his half of the room from hers. She closed her eyes and concentrated for a while. He watched with interest.

"A light defense against all matter... Absorption of magical energy... Reflection of kinetic energy... Permeable to gases and sound... Ah! It only reacts to solid objects of at least 50 grams."

The Lord Mage casually spread his arms: "If it reacted to air and dust, it would waste far too much magical energy. You're welcome to try and beat me to death with a feather."

"Aren't they afraid of blowgun darts or anything like that? With all those unpleasant plants and animals, I'm sure there are more than enough suitable poisons to paint on them."

"All matter is countered by a certain minimum counterforce. Blowpipe arrows don't have enough mass or kinetic energy to hit anything after passing through. Besides, bringing a meter-long pipe in here is quite conspicuous. The shorter ones don't even get their arrows all the way through. I tested this extensively a long time ago, of course."

He leaned back and relaxed: "I'm perfectly safe until I drop the barrier voluntarily. Now then, I'm still waiting to hear how they're going to get me to do it."

Jane opened her handbag and started rummaging through it: "Norman would probably suggest some good compromises first. Horst would reproach them and, with a complete lack of understanding of the situation, try to convince them to do the right thing."

There Lord Mage deliberately put on a broad lecherous grin, "And her?"

She wordlessly pulled a small pistol out of her handbag, took aim and systematically fired one shot after the other without the slightest hesitation. The almost 40g 9mm bullets flew through the barrier without any significant resistance. The first hit the surprised lord mage in the neck. The second missed his head by a hair's breadth. Jane adjusted her grip, took aim and hit the upper body with the next three bullets. She aimed a little longer for the last one and shot the mage, who had long since slumped in his chair gasping, cleanly in the middle of the forehead. The magical barrier collapsed with the death of its creator.

Jane cast a spell that made auras and life force visible to her. To her eyes, the mage now glowed a rapidly fading red. However, her trained eye could clearly see that his aura was not simply dissipating, but was being drawn into a pendant that hung around his neck beneath his clothing. Having detected no other active magical traps, she walked around the desk, pulled the body back a little on her armchair and searched it. Apart from a non-magical signet ring, she only found the pendant. She briefly considered whether she should analyze it magically, but then decided against it. A soul reaper. What else could it be? She had no idea what method of resurrection he had planned with it, but she had no interest in finding out. She carefully wrapped it in a piece of cloth without touching it with her bare hands and then stuffed it into her handbag.

A soft, shy knock sounded at the door. Jane went to the door and opened it just a crack. When she looked down after a second, she saw the worried face of one of the hunchbacked servants: "The Lord Mage does not wish to be disturbed for a while." She squeezed through the door without opening it any more than necessary, carefully blocking his view inside. His gaze wavered back and forth between her and the door.

"The Lord Mage has ordered you to prepare our departure as soon as possible. Pack two weeks' worth of food, clothing and weapons. And remember, the Lord Mage does not want to be disturbed under any circumstances. Until he specifically orders otherwise."

"Lord Mage not here. Loud, nasty noise." He raised his hand to open the door.

"You actually want to disobey an explicit order from the Lord Mage? And disturb him in the middle of his experiment, which incidentally also caused that loud, nasty noise?" She deliberately put a note of disbelief in her voice.

The Vigori jerked back from the door handle as if he had burned himself: "Don't contradict! He orders, we do!" He hurried off to prepare for the guests' departure. Jane stood still for a few minutes, then, as she had expected, another Vigori came running, taking up a position in front of the door to prevent any disturbance to his master. Only then did she leave the door to return to the other students.

*

Horst had sat down cross-legged on one of the sleeping mats on the floor and watched as Norman paced nervously up and down the room. Back and forth. At one point, he stopped briefly at a wall and touched the stone wall thoughtfully: "The stones fit together perfectly. They're all the same size. No mortar. I'd love to know how they did it."

Horst shrugged his shoulders: "Zaubberai."

"Probably." He continued to wander up and down. Horst stood up and looked around in vain for something to do.

"Do you mean her..."

Horst confidently brushed aside Norman's worried tone: "Jane will be fine. She's stronger and smarter than the rest of us."

"The Lord Mage can just control them and... You know."

Horst was just about to answer when he heard footsteps outside the door.

Norman rushed towards her when she had barely opened the door: "Are you all right?"

"Of course. I've arranged everything. We can set off as soon as the hunchbacks have prepared our provisions."

"And the Lord Mage? It didn't sound like he was going to change his mind."

"He will no longer contradict our departure."

Horst patted her enthusiastically on the shoulder: "Great! How did you manage that?"

"Feminine charm. But now let's go down to the kitchen. The quicker we get out of here, the quicker we'll be back home." She grabbed him by the arm and pulled the surprised student behind her.

Norman followed somewhat hesitantly: "Jane... did you... With the Lord Mage..."

"What?"

"You know..."

He blushed as she looked him straight in the eye: "We were barely alone for half an hour. What exactly do you think we were able to do in that short time? do?"

"Well..."

"Norman, we need to talk occasionally when we're back in our world. In private." She snuggled up to him and put one arm around him so that she could pull him towards her with her hand on the back of his neck.

For a moment it looked as if she was going to kiss him and Horst discreetly turned to the side, but then Jane pranced out of his arms and over to the door: "Come on, what are you waiting for?"

Norman shook his head briefly, grinned a little sheep-eyed and then quickly packed his few belongings into a wicker basket.

Horst did the same and the two of them followed Jane out through the door. Two of the Vigori came running in with heavy rucksacks and their strange limping style. Jane greeted them with a friendly pat on the head and took the backpacks made of wicker from them: "Wonderful. That was quick. Packed full of durable food as the Lord Mage ordered?"

"Yes, of course. Master command, Vigori do. Master soon finished with special meditation?"

"It could still take a while. He said he might even need several days. There was something wrong with the mystical seal we brought back and he has to... oh dear!" She raised her hand to her mouth in perfectly feigned horror: "He didn't want me to tell anyone about the seal!"

The two hunchbacks looked at each other with wide-open eyes and tapped back and forth in panic: "You don't tell what magicians forbid!"

The other nodded vigorously: "We haven't heard! We already forgot! You never tell us again!" He hit his head with his fist as if he could beat the memory out of his head.

"Don't worry. Of course I never will again. How could I! We'd better go before I give anything away again."

The Vigori shooed Jane and the two slightly confused students down the stairs and out of the house.

A little way from the tower, Norman finally dared to ask: "Jane... What exactly did the Lord Mage say?"

"We discussed it and in the end he no longer objected to our departure."

Norman looked at her scrutinizingly: "Did you have another one of those one-way spells?"

"No. That wouldn't have helped either. He was far too well protected against any kind of magic. Besides, I only have something to dye my hair and two manicure spells. Other than that, I have to rely on my small repertoire of normal spells."

"You specialize in healing magic, don't you?"

"Partly. Plus some related specialist areas."

"Well, then I hope you can handle the clairvoyance spell Leo taught me."

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

"That's right. There was something else. Shoot."

"So... um... the whole thing is based on a standard search matrix..."

"Like the basic spell for recognizing general magic?"

"I think Leonardo mentioned that as suitable basic knowledge."

"Good. That and the associated analysis spell to determine which spell was cast in a place or on an object are the only clairvoyance spells I can do properly."

*

Three days later, Horst's wristwatch beeped once. The group stopped and Jane and Norman looked curiously at their companion. Horst had stopped and was staring straight ahead while his voice sounded unfamiliar yet familiar and emotionless: "Maximum weakening of dimensional boundaries achieved. Field lines show clear refraction patterns and residue from a previous dimensional breakthrough. Reports indicate several hundred years, but the signs are still recognizable. Hypothesis: The seal with the pre-matter has preserved this state through its radiation."

Norman grimaced slightly reproachfully: "You don't even try to sound human anymore."

"Further camouflage would be a waste of computing time. I invest these additional capacities in simulating a completely normal environment for Horst and harmonizing the input of his senses with the external circumstances. Your less subtle glances and hints in conversations are difficult to filter out of his perception."

"Sorry about that. You're right about that, of course. How is Horst?"

"His mind operates within normal parameters."

He turned to Jane: "Jane, it's up to you now."

She nodded and concentrated. Then she held both hands in front of her as if she were holding a head-sized sphere. With careful emphasis, she spoke the formula that would help her bring the magic into the right form. Slowly, fine blue lines began to appear between her hands. She turned slightly on the spot and the lines changed their arrangement and luminosity. She began to take a few steps forward and then pivoted slightly to the left, "This way."

The hike was surprisingly boring. The area around the Nexus was full of poisonous and sometimes man-eating plants, but if you didn't need to forage for food, you could easily avoid them. The Lord Mage had mentioned in one of their conversations that there were hardly any wandering monsters in the area. The Lightbringer could not see the inhabitants in the Nexus and as long as there were no wandering clans nearby, there was no reason for him to create hordes of monsters or other entertaining surprises. Long conversations with guardians of various wandering clans had led the Lord Mage to theorize that the Lightbringer had imposed very complex rules on the use of his beasts. It seemed that he only allowed new creatures to emerge at a relatively large distance from the clans. There may even have been restrictions on where he was allowed to create them. The board game "Paths and Veins", popular in Carcerus, had arisen from the need to understand this in more detail and develop strategies to escape.

Less than an hour later, all the lines crossed between their hands and a glowing point of light appeared at the intersection. Jane dropped the spell and the lines disappeared: "Right here is a clear weakening of the dimensional boundaries. The stones here show significant variations in their warshok constant. Too small to fall out of dimension, but enough to weaken the integrity of the borders between worlds."

Norman turned to Horst: "So, let's take a little break. We'll rest for fifteen minutes and then we'll open the portal. I want to be as fresh as possible when we go in. After all, we don't have the slightest idea what awaits us there."

The tall student put his head to one side thoughtfully: "That part isn't quite clear to me. How do you open a portal thing like that? They had this huge machine and stuff at the university. And what have I got?"

Jane reached into her purse and pulled out her cell phone: "We have this."

Unnoticed by Horst, the holographic clock face and the hands of Horst's watch disappeared and for a moment you could see a rapid sequence of green program codes running through while the watch established a Bluetooth connection and completely reprogrammed Jane's phone. Then the familiar clock face reappeared.

A subtle beep from the cell phone made Jane look at the display: "Done."

Horst looked confused for a moment, then nodded: "Oh yes, the program thingy that Leo came up with and Norman had to learn by heart."

Norman nodded. He hoped Horst didn't ask how they had gotten program codes into a cell phone. Of course, that hadn't been a problem for WATCH: "It overloads its tiny Gallifreynium antenna and..."

Jane didn't feel like waiting any longer and used this as a cue to activate the program. The device began to hum. Louder and louder. The air began to visibly vibrate and shimmer. Then, with a final electronic whine, small golden-orange colored flashes came out of it.

From Norman's point of view, his surroundings seemed to flicker for a moment as if he were looking through a smooth, clear lake into which someone had thrown a stone. Then he suddenly fell. Everything spun and light blinded him from all sides. He panicked for a moment, but then he recognized the outlines of his two companions next to him. Using them as reference points, he reoriented himself and realized that he was not falling at all. He was in weightlessness.

His stomach churned and he felt dizzy. Even though everything was still. Then he felt something like gravity again. Which was irritating, because they were floating in the middle of a glowing tunnel. The tunnel was covered with a precise, geometric pattern of neon-colored glowing lines. Blue-white light, just bright enough not to hurt the eyes, dispelled all shadows. And it seemed to stretch into infinity.

Norman took a few deep breaths and exhaled: "Good, I don't smell anything poisonous... In fact, I don't smell anything at all. Smells like distilled water tastes. And I don't sense anything unusual. Apart from the unnaturally odorless air. We can probably breathe here. I was a little worried."

Horst was a little surprised: "Why didn't you say anything?"

"We couldn't have changed anything. Carcerus doesn't have a particularly large selection of stores for oxygen tanks or diving equipment or even spacesuits."

Jane clapped her hands together and blew against her open hand: "Strange. No air flow. I can't really feel the air in my lungs either. It's more like there's no real air here."

"But we're not suffocating." Norman was confused.

"The environment supplies our cells directly with energy. We could probably stop our heartbeat and still not die. I would theorize that we don't even need to eat or drink here."

"Then we'll watch the clock and make sure we eat regularly, even if we're not hungry." Norman carefully floated a few steps forward, concentrating on this direction. Then he noticed out of the corner of his eye that the other two were staring at him in confusion: "It's quite simple, think of a direction and..."

Jane was the first to reply: "Why should we eat? I just explained that we probably don't need to eat here!"

"It could work here. But as soon as we step out of these cosmic maintenance tunnels, our body immediately obeys normal natural laws again. And then our blood is completely depleted of nutrients, probably also of oxygen. Every single cell is starving without us noticing. I have no idea what the effect would be, but it would certainly not be pleasant. So we'd better eat regularly, that's what we've brought supplies for."

Jane hit her head with the flat of her hand and began to roll over backwards for a moment before concentrating enough to straighten up again, "Of course! Why didn't I think of that! I can even tell you what would happen. What did I take all those courses in medicine and anatomy for? A complete circulatory collapse. When the cell stores and the blood itself are almost completely empty of nutrients. We wouldn't have had a chance to survive until we digested food. It will be hard enough if we turn up at the university without the last bit of oxygen in our blood."

"Will we survive this?"

"I think so. But it's going to be... close. And probably unpleasant."

She moved to the side as Horst rushed past her: "I can't wait! Look what I've got..." His voice trailed off as he disappeared into the distance. The two remaining students hovered on the spot for a split second, then looked at each other briefly and raced after him. A little concentration was all it took. As Horst had stopped again straight away, they caught up with him again without any problems.

Reunited, the group followed the instructions from the computer voice on Horst's wristwatch. Horst was led to believe that they were following signals from a program on Jane's cell phone. In fact, the device was just a burnt-out shell.

In contrast to the veins, there were only ever branches with two alternatives. The distances between them were blurred. When the students concentrated on it, the distance didn't seem to matter. One heartbeat and they were there. Accelerating and decelerating happened on the spot. Inertia played no role here.

"The signal from the direction finder is getting much stronger. The analysis of the laws of these wormhole connections has been completed."

"Took you quite a long time." Jane sounded rather disdainful.

"This environment is subject to previously unknown physical laws. The signal strength only changes at the crossing points. The space in between doesn't seem to count. Quite difficult for an AI like me to process. Natural laws are stored in my database as immutable facts. I practically had to rewrite my own operating system. The task took almost four minutes."

"Is that watch humor?" Norman raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Was the attempt successful?" The computer voice managed to get a little curiosity into its voice.

Jane intervened directly: "No. Now get down to business. How much further to the exit?"

"The route follows a path bent in six dimensions depending on the movement pattern of the solar system in relation to Carcerus and the difference in the Warshok constants of the starting and target systems, taking into account ..."

"How long?" Jane had no patience left for politeness.

"If I've calculated the pattern correctly, there are still about a dozen crossings. We should arrive in about an hour."

The group accelerated again and turned left once and right twice. Then the watch's instructions stopped. The tunnel in front of them expanded into a gigantic bubble. Even before the AI came out with its estimate of about 2.37 km in diameter, Norman had estimated the size to be over two kilometers. The cavity had hundreds of exits in all directions. But that wasn't what threw the students completely off balance. Again, the walls were covered with the neon-colored lines, their square pattern spreading out from the exits in all directions and covering the inside of the sphere. The light dimmed towards the center of the room for no apparent reason. He suspected dust particles or clouds of mist in the air. However, he only paid casual attention to this interesting phenomenon. Three pairs of eyes and the sensors of a sophisticated AI gazed in bewilderment at three objects hovering about a kilometer away in the center of the room. They were huge. Certainly over two hundred meters long. Snake-like creatures with scaly skin. Arms and legs were difficult to make out from a distance, but they were undoubtedly there. At the rear third were widely spread leathery wings, but they hung motionless in weightless space. Kites. Three dragons with dull amber scales. Completely lifeless, floating in space. Curiosity outweighed his natural instinct for self-preservation and Norman floated off. Slower than before through the empty tunnels, but still at the speed of a car on a well-maintained country road.

Before he had covered more than half the distance, he suddenly felt a firm grip on his arm. Turning around, he looked into Jane's ashen face. The knuckles of her hand stood out white and her voice, for the first time since he had known her, sounded slightly panicked: "What are you doing? Can't you see what these are?"

"They look like dragons."

"Yes! Dragon! Let's get out of here!"

"Don't you want to take a closer look?"

"No. Are you crazy? There are no more dangerous and merciless creatures."

"They look pretty dead."

"They're probably asleep. When they wake up, we'll be toast..."

"At least the one with the big hole in his chest is probably pretty dead."

Jane wheeled around and narrowed her eyes. After a few seconds, her grip relaxed a little: "Could be a trick..."

"What for? Do you think we could escape them if they were awake?"

"Of course not! They're dragons!"

"Then why would they play dead? They could only do that if they knew we were there. And then we wouldn't be able to escape anyway, would we?"

She reluctantly let go of his arm. He waited a moment, then approached the dragons again. Meanwhile, Horst had caught up with them: "Do you think they're dead?

His voice changed for a moment as the AI added to the watch: "Vital signs negative. Body temperature approximately equal to ambient temperature. No active movements. No breathing, although that's meaningless in this environment."

Norman and Horst arrived side by side at the nearest dragon and flew alongside the huge creature a few meters away. The scales, which according to legend were indestructible, were dull and cracked. In two places they saw deep, round holes with frayed edges. Then they reached the head. The mouth was slightly open so that the tips of the countless sharp teeth were visible. One of the eyes was tightly closed, the other was wide open. It was dull and the surface was cracked. It was difficult to make out the slit, meter-long pupil through the almost opaque surface.

Norman carefully touched one of the scales. It felt cool to the touch. Smooth and hard: "Can we take one with us as a souvenir?"

Jane continued to keep a good hundred meters away. When she heard Norman's words, she hovered a little closer: "Dragon parts attract other dragons. They say they can sense them solar systems away! Just keep your hands off them. And now let's go!"

"Just one more moment."

Horst, who had been hovering next to Norman with his mouth open, suddenly stiffened and the voice of the watch came out of his mouth again: "Warning! Multiple energy signatures are moving inside the dragon's body!"

Jane shot off as if shot from a bow. Horst looked around in confusion until Norman pulled him behind him by the arm: "Something's moving in the dragons. Let's get out of here first."

As Horst picked up speed, Norman let go of him, turned around and slowed down a little. At first he couldn't see anything unusual. Then he saw a reflection of light in one of the holes. An oval, almost one meter long creature with six legs crawled out of it. It was difficult to make out as it was almost completely transparent. He couldn't see any organs or bones or anything like that. Just sparkling reflections of light. The air... or whatever filled the empty space here in this in-between dimension began to shimmer around the creature, then it floated away from the dragon's body. More shadows appeared behind it. Horst's AI voice rang out, "More energy signatures detected on the surface of all three dragons. High energy concentrations... Warning! Objects are leaving the surface of the dragons and picking up speed. Seventeen objects... Nineteen objects... Twenty-four objects..."

Norman saw sparkling objects moving away from the dragons. Then they picked up speed. He also accelerated and quickly caught up with his two companions. When he glanced back, the swarm of pursuers seemed to disappear a few hundred meters away from the dragons.

"Horst, did you see where they disappeared to? Have the critters disintegrated?"

The AI voice answered him: "Negative. Thirty-seven objects are following us with increasing speed. They bend the light around them, making them invisible to the naked eye. However, my sensors can still locate them without any problems."

"Have you ever seen anything like it? Or have you, Jane?"

Jane didn't even turn around, but held Horst firmly by the arm and flew forward at full speed while the AI voice led the way.

"I've never heard of anything like it. But the critters have hollowed out three dragons. I'm not going to stop to look at something that can handle dragons. Are they catching up?"

"Horst?"

"The distance of the objects following us is decreasing at an increasing rate. Thirty-seven minutes until they catch up with us."

Jane let out a completely ungirlish, frustrated hiss, "Can't you do something?"

"I don't have built-in weapons, shields or the power supply for long-range effects. Thirty-six minutes until they catch up with us."

Norman had to make an effort to keep up with the other two. Horst just stared ahead of him while the AI of the watch steered him. Jane had her arms crossed tightly in front of her chest and was putting all her willpower and concentration into flying faster. He himself was simply too distracted. There had to be a way to lose those strange, invisible bugs. Maybe they were just curious and wanted to have a look at the students? But how was he supposed to test that without being eaten... Maybe he could buy the others enough time to escape... but that would hardly work with so many pursuers. So what was left... "Hey, watch! How exactly are they tracking us?"

"The term clock is imprecise and incorrect. I accept Horst or the acronym W.A.T.C.H. for the near future."

"Yes, yes... I get it. So WATCH, how do they locate us?"

"Analyze... Refraction prevents optical localization. My sensors do not detect active signals such as radar or sonar. The magnetic fields in this environment prevent them from picking up the extremely weak magnetic field signatures of human bodies. I myself am extremely well shielded against detection. The most likely remaining options are infrared localization of our heat signatures or telepathic abilities."

"What can we do about it?"

"Infrared vision cannot be blocked using the methods available to us."

Jane began to rummage in her handbag as she flew and pulled out a forearm-length red and white top hat: "Would this help?"

"A thermos?" Norman tried to get a better look.

Jane unscrewed the white cover, moved a kind of switch on the side and pointed it backwards. A soft bang sounded and a red glowing ball shot out of it: "Distress signaling device. Six flares with a long burn time."

"The volume of this container contradicts the Euclidean laws. Strictly speaking, of course, we now use the modern axiomatic theory of geometry according to David Hilbert, but for some unknown reason I am programmed to refer to the outdated theory of Euclid of Alexandria, which is better known to the average population. Regardless of this, I suggest firing the remaining lights at the next junction. And in the direction of the junction that we won't be taking. The next one is in sixteen seconds. We will take the left tunnel, so please fire three signal rockets in twelve seconds in the direction of the right tunnel. Nine... Eight... Seven..."

The three students sped off with a hard turn to the left. Three glowing red signal rockets whistled off into the other tunnel. A few seconds of tense waiting later, the watch's artificial intelligence reported again: "The creatures are still following us. No reaction to the beacons. Obviously they are not following us using infrared perception."

Jane cursed.

"Start test for telepathic perception. Take the next turn upwards. I'll pretend to fly straight ahead."

Even this maneuver did not provoke any reaction from the pursuers, who continued to catch up. By now, Norman had become accustomed to the usual way of moving around here. After failing to accelerate any further, he maintained his speed quite easily. He spread his arms out, imagined himself floating on his back on the water in the open-air swimming pool and thought: "Tell me, AI, how do these dragons normally break through the dimensional boundaries?"

"The abilities of dragons are not stored in my database."

"Hypothetically, wouldn't they have to use Gallifreynium's unique abilities?"

"This hypothesis has a high probability, provided they don't have a completely new method. According to this theory, they would have to have gallifreynium deposits somewhere in their body. Perhaps in the bones or in the blood or in specific parts of the body. Without further analysis of the dragons' bodies, this cannot be clarified at present."

Norman's mind raced: "Maybe these invisible bugs are some kind of parasite or something. Surely they can locate this stuff. The only thing we have with us is in Jane's cell phone. However, the gallifreynium in it is now used up... Okay. Forget it."

"Correction: The consumption of gallifreynium is significantly lower outside the university dimension. There are probably still small amounts remaining in the device."

"If it's broken anyway, throw it away. Maybe that will help."

Jane shrugged her shoulders: "Can't hurt." She rummaged briefly in her bottomless handbag again and then threw the slightly scorched-looking device down with all her might at the next junction as they flew straight on.

The watch reported almost immediately: "The flight pattern of our pursuers has changed. They have definitely detected something. I'll wait until they reach the turn-off... Yes, they're turning downwards."

"We did it!"

"Without an active effort of will, the cell phone will only be able to maintain its lead for a short time. It is unknown how they will react once they have caught it. Either they will be satisfied or they will take up the chase again. In any case, we've gained quite a bit of a lead again."