‎Chapter 7: The strongest magician in his world

Leonardo and Samantha were lolling in the sun on a park bench in the city park on one of the few warm days in recent weeks.

"So, have you made any progress with this search spell?"

"Not really. I just can't make any progress. Every time I want to look at the formula in peace, something comes up again. Lessons, homework, surprise visits from Majere, who is spinning his wheels again, that no one is making an effort to save his daughter, Zunylamien..."

"Who?"

Leonardo hesitated for a moment: "Just a fellow student from the illusion magic lectures who is always looking for someone to tutor him."

"You're lying." She said it casually, without any accusation. As a pure statement of fact.

"Hey, what makes you think that?"

She shrugged casually: "It's a little gift I have. When someone lies to me, I can feel it. Normally, I should be looking at this fellow student 's face right now. But you only seem to be thinking about your computer."

"You never told me you could do that!"

"Never worked on the university campus either. I'd almost forgotten what it feels like to be lied to." She grinned at him amicably. "That's okay. If you don't want to reveal who it is, just say so. If you're lying, I can see the truth in your mind."

"Okay. I had to promise... Well... Anyway, I can't talk about it."

"Have you ever asked Rodrik if he can explain the spell to you? He once mentioned that he knows the 'universal search spell'."

"What, Rodrik can do that? He never told me about that!"

"Maybe you weren't there when we talked about it."

Leo pulled out his cell phone and typed in Rodrik's number from memory. Cell phones ended up as spare parts stores too often in his presence for him to ever get into the habit of saving numbers. Besides, he didn't see the point. He had never forgotten a phone number. Or anything else of interest.

"Hi Rodrik. Sam just mentioned that you know a search spell. How come you never mentioned that! That would be exactly what we..." He listened for a while as he kept nodding unconsciously: "Ok... Yes... I see... That doesn't really get us anywhere. Can you show me anyway? We're in the city park right now... In half an hour in the portal room. They wanted to test one of the possible dimensions today anyway. I suggest we go with them, cast one of these search spells and see what area we can cover with it... Okay. See you soon!"

Sam glared at him, "Why didn't you mention there was another attempt today?"

"The whole thing is completely pointless. I checked the formulas they used to arrive at this target dimension. There were so many variables filled with 'assumptions' and 'probabilities' that you might as well be guessing. They just wanted to be able to offer old Majere something. After the rector put his foot down, they can leave their faculty again without reprisals, but Majere still regularly kicks them in the... I mean, he still pushes them quite a bit."

"Nah then let's go!"

"We just need to make a quick detour to the Starbucks over there. I really need a double mocha."

*

On the way to the portal room, the two passed three nervous guards and students, who only let them through after extensive screening with clairvoyance magic and portable scanners. No one had to ask who they were expecting. Despite all the principal's instructions, most of the faculty still expected Professor Majere to lose his patience and drop by for a visit after all.

The atmosphere in the portal room itself was calm and professional. Clearly nothing was planned here that had not already been tested a hundred times. The room with the actual portal was still closed at the moment. Thick steel locks blocked access until it was certain that the dimensional connection did not end in a vacuum. Or under water. Or in a sun.

"Hi Leonardo." One of the students waved the two of them over. "Who have you brought along?"

"Hello Herbert. Just a friend who wanted to take a look at your great devices."

Herbert only really noticed Samantha now. He waved his hand a little aimlessly when he couldn't decide between the Vulcan salute from Star Trek and a normal wave. When he realized this, he quickly put both hands behind his back, folded them there and stretched a little to stand straighter. However, the slight bulge in his stomach that this emphasized ruined the dignified impression he was trying to achieve. He fumbled with his greeting, then turned quickly and gestured to some observation monitors: "You... ahem... are just in time. We're sending the probe through right now."

The portal room could be seen on the screen. The steel archway was illuminated from all sides and glittered impressively. A metal rod with a round, perforated metal ball at the end emerged from a box in front of the portal and then disappeared into the glittering mist that led to another world. Leo watched the monitors that now lit up attentively. Herbert commented, now becoming more confident: "Temperature 22 degrees. Atmosphere present, normal pressure, oxygen, nitrogen, breathable mixture. No radioactivity, no toxins, no carcinogenic dust. Number of microorganisms normal to low. Bioscanner does not detect any unknown pathogens. Dimension portal stable. Looks... What's that?" He turned his attention to another monitor, on which a flashing text message had just appeared: "Hey Leo, did you invite another Rodrik Bannwäldner?"

"Yes, I have. They should let him in. We need him."

"A magic student? Are you sure he's not in league with Majere?"

"Yes, I am. It's totally ok."

Sam stifled a remark. They hardly knew the young student and he still seemed rather suspicious to her. She just couldn't say what she suspected him of.

The slight student marched curiously into the room. "Hi guys, have I missed anything yet?"

Leonardo waved him off: "You're just in time. The portal is stable and the target dimension seems to be safe."

Herbert immediately felt a little left out and coughed softly: "That's not so obvious! The last two attempts led to a vacuum and then to a desert of dust with no breathable atmosphere."

"It's all right. It's all right. He's right. We were pretty lucky to hit a living world on our third attempt." Although he had already read through the usual procedure in the textbooks, he politely turned to Herbert and asked him: "And what happens now?"

"So as you can see on the monitors, a cage with mice and one with canaries are still being pushed through. After five minutes we'll get them back again. If nothing unusual has happened and the test animals are doing well, we'll go through."

The group also waited impatiently for this last test. Leo glanced at the monitor, where the test results from the first test were still visible: "Tell me, where did you get this awesome sensor? This thing is running a series of tests that would actually take days! And analyzing all the microorganisms and comparing them with the database of known DNA structures is something no device I know can do."

Herbert shrugged his shoulders: "I'd like to say we invented it, but you wouldn't believe me. The thing was hanging on the outside of a dimensional vehicle that appeared on the roof of the history faculty the semester before last. Looked like a cross between a spacecraft and a caravan. Would have been a priceless find if the entire interior hadn't been completely burnt out. We haven't been able to figure out exactly what went wrong, but they probably used some kind of nuclear reactor as a power source based on natural laws that work slightly differently in our dimension. The only device that still worked was the environmental scanner on the outside of the vehicle."

Samantha leaned over to the monitor, "How did you figure out how to use this thing?"

"It wasn't easy. We sent in various signals until something comprehensible came out. It turned out that the device can be connected to any USB port under 'Windows XP'. Plug & Play. Also serves as a small data storage device containing the necessary drivers and the control program. Guess whoever traveled around with it assumed they would end up in their past. We were able to find drivers for use under Windows NT, MS-DOS, Mac-OS and various other operating systems. We couldn't even identify some of them, but our colleagues at the Faculty of Digital Communication are working on that."

"I hate to interrupt you two, but shall we finally open the airlock and go through the portal? The test animals have just returned safe and sound and every minute we leave the portal open consumes huge amounts of energy and Gallifreynium!"

Herbert was visibly reluctant to interrupt the conversation with the beautiful Sam, but nodded reluctantly and opened the massive airlock door with a few keystrokes.

*

A short time later, they were all standing in a peaceful green meadow. Surrounded by solitary trees, flowers, a few low bushes with rowan berries and numerous chirping birds. There was no sign of civilization or people anywhere. Herbert shrugged his shoulders: "Nothing to say. There are thousands of places on our planet where you're just as much in the wilderness. That says nothing about this planet. He took a few steps to the side and began to speak a report into a small dictaphone: "Tracking device indicates that the missing students are not within range, about three hundred miles radius under local conditions. Gravity, atmosphere, flora and fauna as expected from sensor readings are Earth-like. No unusual phenomena recognizable at first glance. Lack of air pollution indicates a technologically undeveloped civilization. Landscape appears..."

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Meanwhile, Leonardo turned to the would-be demonologist, who was inconspicuously trying to peek into Sam's cleavage while she bent over a particularly colorful flower to sniff it: "Rodrik..."

The man I spoke to was startled: "Yes? Sure... I'm sure you mean I should start with the search spell..." Leo just nodded in agreement. Then he watched as Rodrik stood up to his modest height and stretched his arms out to either side. He lifted his head to look towards the sky and concentrated for a moment. Then he spoke in a surprisingly confident and, for him, unusually clear voice: "Show me Norman Zimmermann!"

He pulled his hands together in one swift movement and pressed them tightly together. As he looked down intently at his hands, Leonardo could see beads of sweat appear on his forehead. After about half a minute, Rodrik relaxed, visibly disappointed: "He's not here. Not within reach, anyway."

Samantha nodded: "Too bad. Can you also look for Jane and Horst, just to be on the safe side? Maybe the three of them have been separated."

"I can. Jane is a student of magic, so she's probably better shielded against magic. But there's no harm in trying all three."

He repeated his spell twice more, again without success: "They're not here. What now?"

Leonardo thought: "How about you look for the most powerful mage in the area? If there are any mages here. Maybe there's someone here who knows about dimension-shifting or who can at least confirm that our friends aren't here. A single spell seems a bit uncertain to rule out an entire dimension."

Rodrik rocked his head back and forth. A soft cracking of his overstretched neck vertebrae made the hairs on the back of Leonardo's and Samantha's necks stand up. Then he raised his hands again and began his search spell: "Show me the strongest mage within reach!"

You could see that it was exhausting him to cast spells in such quick succession. Leo could well remember the hellish headache he had suffered the first few times he had overdone it. After a minute or so, Rodrik looked up again. Triumphantly, he pointed south: "I've found someone! That way, about two kilometers. Let's go!"

At first, everyone looked around cautiously on the way, but the peaceful atmosphere quickly dulled their attention and the group wandered happily chatting across the colorful flower meadow. Leo still regretted that they hadn't been allowed to take any weapons with them. The dean of the faculty insisted on exploring each new world peacefully first and not risking any incidents. To that end, each of the students had strapped on a thick metal belt with one of the new emergency transporters. Should they get into danger, they could simply press a button and initiate an extremely uncontrolled and rough, but according to the technicians "completely safe" dimensional transport back to the university. Leonardo had studied the specifications and was determined to use this device only in extreme emergencies. Firstly, it was still almost untested and secondly, the targeting accuracy was 'vague' at best. He had found no reason why he shouldn't have surfaced a few hundred meters above the university. Or a few meters underground. Or in the fusion reactor.

A little later, they climbed a low hill and could see a little more of the surrounding area. Far and wide, only sparse forests, bushes and meadows. Rodrik pointed to some denser bushes: "He should be right behind it. I can still sense the target through the spell."

They wandered down the hill a little more quietly and attentively. Rodrik was the first to circle the bushes and stopped in surprise. Sam, Herbert and Leonardo were no different. Behind the bushes was nothing but another lush meadow with a small herd of grazing horses. Leo didn't know much about horses, but to him they looked quite healthy and well cared for. Their manes and tails curled down. Given the vast area of pasture and the fact that they hadn't seen any other animals for miles around, apart from birds and a few squirrels, he wasn't surprised that the animals were doing well. He patted Rodrik cheerfully on the shoulder: "Well, Master Mage, where exactly is the strongest mage in the world now?"

Rodrik was still looking around in complete disbelief. He gruffly swept Leonardo's hand off his shoulder: "The spell points to that big stallion up ahead! I've already found all sorts of things. Car keys, lost purses, even indexed and unlisted books in the lower library! It's never gone so wrong!"

Probably alerted by Rodrik's angry voice, the stallion Rodrik had pointed to straightened up from grazing, keeping a close eye on the students and trotting a few steps forward and to the side to put himself more between the humans and the rest of the herd. "There are wild herds of horses on very few civilized worlds. We won't find anything important here. We'd best turn back before we needlessly burn up more Gallifreynium to maintain the portal."

Meanwhile, Samantha had discovered something that the others had missed: "Wait. I think there may well be people around here too."

"What makes you think that?" Herbert looked around again, but could see no signs. No vapor trails from planes, no brands on the horses. No buildings, paved paths or roads."

"I don't believe that horses are born with horseshoes."

The three men looked over in amazement at the stallion, who was now standing attentively but calmly about ten meters in front of them. He was indeed clearly wearing horseshoes. Rodrik was obviously still pissed off that he had made such a fool of himself: "So what? Iron Age doesn't help us much. Maybe we'll take one of the horses with us to make the whole thing at least a little worthwhile."

Before Leo could answer, he was interrupted by a nasal voice: "I wouldn't do that." Everyone turned to the stallion.

"You can talk?" Herbert sounded incredulous.

"Of course. Who summoned you?"

"Summoned? We weren't summoned, we came through a dimensional portal of our own."

The stallion pricked up his ears in surprise and took a few steps backwards: "You've always been treated well. You're not angry, are you?"

"Why should we be angry? Oh, I understand! You summon demons for slave labor and now of course you think we're such demons and now we've come on our own and without control spells to get revenge, right?"

Huge brown horse eyes wandered carefully from one to the other. He bowed his head elegantly. Leonardo thought he looked damn dignified. And he didn't normally like horses. This was the opportunity. The spell had found this talking horse. So unless Rodrik had completely botched the whole thing, he was undoubtedly a powerful mage. As long as he thought they were vengeful demons, they could easily persuade him. He would eat right out of their hands. Finally, they had a chance to gain a powerful ally for their quest. He opened his mouth to say something...

"We've never been summoned before, so we have no reason to be vengeful about anything. We're looking for some friends who are lost in another dimension. Can you please help us?"

Samantha had beaten him to it. He quietly closed his mouth again, folded his hands behind his back and waited patiently to see how things would develop.

"Guhuhut. I was unsure for a moment. It's not that we treat demons badly. But we often need their services and... we can't pay them. After all, they can't take anything with them to hell. And even if they always say otherwise, it seems pretty damn cheap to just let them roam free in our forest for a few days in return. Until the incantation stops working and they're dragged back to their homeland."

"What do you need demons for anyway?"

Rodrik immediately threw in a few helpful suggestions: "Mercenaries, arena fighters, slave laborers, love servants... ahm... I mean helpers brewing love potions or something."

"What a shame! We only need your hands."

Leo and Rodrik looked at him in amazement for a moment. Sam mumbled, "Handyman..."

"I see. Sure. You need them as craftsmen for... your horseshoes!" Rodrik felt a little stupid for not having realized it right away. A race of creatures with hooves certainly had a number of almost insurmountable problems that a normal human could solve. Or a normal demon.

"Jaha. Do you want to see the blacksmith's workshop they built for sihihich? It's only two days' journey south of here."

"No thanks." Leonardo decided to steer the conversation in the right direction: "Even though I'd love to have a nice chat about the local culture, which is certainly very interesting, we're unfortunately a little pressed for time."

He briefly described how Norman, Horst and Jane had been abducted by the unknown phenomenon and what they had done so far: "... and the clairvoyance spell then led us here."

"Nuhun, I am a mage. But I'm afraid I can't help you with your problem. I am not a summoner."

"Then what are you?"

He scratched his hooves lightly in the lush grass, neighed softly to himself and a small tree sapling emerged from the ground, which had previously been hidden under the grass. Water condensed out of nowhere on the leaves and moistened the ground around the little sapling.

"Gardener?"

"Gäherhertner. Yes."

Samantha bowed politely to the stallion: "Then let's not interrupt any further. We still have many worlds to search. We'll find someone somewhere who recognizes this phenomenon." As he just stood there silently, the three of them turned around and began to make their way back to the still open portal. In the meantime, Rodrik had taken to making notes on a clipboard. As far as Leonardo could see, it was a questionnaire for classifying new dimensions.

"Wahartet. The demon I let myself be shod by four years ago told me about the world that captures creatures. A dungeon world. A world of stone. With veins of water that illuminate endless caves. The god of this world's only pleasure is tormenting all the other beings in his dimension. He hunts them, plays with them, hounds them... And sometimes he wants fresh blood."

"How exactly does this world catch new victims?"

"The Rahahaum folds around her and stalks her. Uhunheimleich!"

"Do you know what dimension, what 'world' this is?"

"Nuhun... This must be the place where all our demons come from. Carcerus."

Rodrik had inconspicuously taken out a dictaphone and was holding it in his hand, unobtrusively switched on.

"What kind of pentagram do you use? Triple or double protective circles? And what do you use to break through the dimensional barrier?"

Rodrik pushed forward, clearly pleased to finally be able to ask questions in an area where he felt safe.

"I'm not a consecrator. I mentioned that I'm not a summoner."

"Do they have bodies when they appear or are they created during the summoning?"

"Now that you mention it, I believe I have heard that the latter is exactly what happens. In our old stories, we gave our form to the former demons. Must have been fun. They could barely walk properly. There are some nehehette anecdotes about the Forerunner attempts to make bodies to the demons' specifications."

"Damn! Countless worlds to choose from and it has to be this one of all worlds."

Samantha put a reassuring arm on his shoulder: "Is it because you had the idea at the very beginning? We haven't lost that much time. Let's just open the next portal to Carcerus."

"There is a reason why we have not tested this possibility with our few Gallifreynium. If they landed there, we can't open a portal. We can't bring them back permanently at all! Carcerus won't give anything or anyone back. There is no way out. Every portal that has ever been opened there has turned out to be a one-way street. We can summon them, but as soon as the summoning ends... poof! They snap back again. Majere will kill us all if he finds out! And I don't want to die yet!"