The city of gold was painted orange beneath the dim morning glow of the artificial sun. Most of the city still seemed to be sleeping, and we could hear the heavy metal doors creak open and clang shut streets over. On our street, surrounded by single-story houses coated in precious metals and embedded with jewels, the whispers of leaves scraping against each other could be heard from up ahead. Hushed conversations were as clear as day, though most El Doradians were quiet as they passed, unwilling or unallowed to disturb the peace.

Even Cove was silent as we walked. Ani and Ranch draped themselves over our respective shoulders, absorbing the warmth from the steadily brightening sun and napping the morning away. The air carried a sweet, damp smell I would have considered rain on the surface, yet there wasn’t a puddle to be found on the ground.

Disappointingly, the El Doradians had no intention of showing off their city, and Cove and I were forced to absorb the beautiful sights from a distance. Like the Agarthians, they didn’t want the portal inside the city. Instead, we were taken on a stroll along the outskirts of the city, up out of a residential district and into the jungled gardens that draped along the edge. We ducked into a beautifully decorated tunnel system with perfectly flat walls and a gold-bricked road that twisted and wound like roots from a tree.

After a half hour or so of walking, Tezcatlipoca showed us inside a modest alcove about the size of my apartment. The walls and ceiling were formed with gold, with silver and bronze veins depicting ancient pyramids and constellations. The floor, constructed of gold as well, was bare. Tezcatlipoca moved to stand off to the side of the room with Ranch and Ani as Cove and I knelt on opposite sides, staring at each other across the center.

We pressed our hands to the ground and began our work. I found myself fine-tuning, finding, and adjusting the connecting threads between portals while Cove supplied the power and did most of the heavy lifting. Blue and red lights burned through my eyelids and seared when I opened my eyes.

The light faded until it existed as a mere outline along the sigil of the new portal; the spots in my eyes remained for more than a few painful blinks. Finally, the light beneath our fingertips died altogether, leaving the blackened lines of the portal etched into the soft gold. Beneath the bright light of Tezcatlipoca’s torch spell, the new portal was stunning in its simple beauty. Victorious, Cove and I shared a quick smile before standing.

Two of the ancient cities were connected.

Pleased, Ani and Ranch darted up to ‘reward’ us with head-buts against our legs and the arching of their backs against our shins. When I reached down to pick Ani up, he darted away playfully, escaping my grasp and sprinting down the black hallway outside the doorframe. Not one to be outdone, Ranch bounded after him. Cove gave a shake of his head and a fond sigh at the sight, and the three of us exited after them at a much slower pace.

They were sure to get in trouble, but we could do nothing to stop them.

As our shoes slapped against the metal floors, my mind, then my magic, wandered. I brushed past the ocean and mist, reaching back toward the portal. There were far fewer presences here than there had been wandering the halls in Agartha, and I found myself inspecting each one closely, looking for any sign of deception. Any one of them, I rightly assumed, could be after the portal.

I had no idea what I would do with the portal-alterer when I found them, but I was curious. Why had they done it? Why hadn’t they just removed the portal entirely? What were they after?

The presences closest to the portal were the most suspicious by default, and I kept a closer ‘eye’ on them. One, an ancient presence that shimmered like a star, beelined for the portal. Before considering if I should, I turned on my heel and ran full speed back toward the portal.

After a second’s hesitation, Cove's light footsteps and the graceful Tezcatlipoca's near-silent steps echoed behind me, then right next to me. Feeling the weight of their curious gazes, through my panted breaths, I said, “Someone’s near the portal.” Their magic brushed against mine as they undoubtedly discovered the same thing I had.

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Cove’s magic flowed through his body like water, and he shot forward like an Olympic racer. Tezcatlipoca did the same, catching then overtaking even Cove while I pushed my legs to run even faster, falling further and further behind. The space between us continued to lengthen, like one of those horrible dreams where you ran and ran but never seemed to move an inch.

They disappeared around the corner, leaving a single floating light behind.

This was the fastest I’d ever been in my entire life, and it still wasn’t fast enough.

The odd, almost dizzying feeling of the portal warping, shifting, and shrinking was quickly followed by the actually dizzying feeling of an earth-quaking blast of magic from Cove as he attempted to recreate the toss spell in real life. The gold walls warped out and then back into place from the pressure, and I stumbled around the final corner to see a shadow rushing in my direction.

Behind it, Tezcatlipoca and Cove sprawled out on the floor, follow-up spells already forming on their fingertips.

As the hooded figure grew nearer, I slid my right foot back into a defensive posture on instinct. The hallway tilted, and the next thing I knew, I was staring up at the ceiling with an aching ankle and a stinging spine.

Catching a shadow out of the corner of my eye, I twisted and reached out. My hand brushed against soft and warm leather, the hooded figure turning to stone beneath my touch. I tilted my head back up to catch a glimpse of his face.

The movement spurred him back into action, and his foot escaped my reach as he slid half a step back. My fingers curled as I flinched back, preparing for a pain that never came. He jumped over my hand and disappeared around the corner. Like water, his presence shifted and changed until I lost track of him altogether.

When I looked back at my companions, they were still struggling to stand. Each time they sifted even a little bit, their feet would slide down the curved edge of the bricks.

I dragged my hand back towards me, the pads of my fingers catching on an ever so slight groove that was ice cold to the touch yet invisible in the light.

“Black ice.”

In his reflection on the bricks, Cove scowled.

I took the easy way up, digging my fingers into the grooves of the metal where the figure had stood and sliding myself onto sturdy ground. Living in Chicago, I’d long since learned that when ice–particularly the invisible black ice–was thick enough on sloped ground keeping your balance was nearly impossible. Back in college, I’d watched some poor souls attempt to use the ice-covered handrails or the snow-covered ground to steady themselves, only to fail and fall on their faces. Even the ones that didn’t fall all over themselves slid where the ice took them, as Cove and Tezcatlipoca were sliding into the back corner, their shoes unable to find any grip on the perfectly smooth ice.

Heat stuck to my side, coming from Tezcatlipoca and Cove’s location, and I couldn’t help but quirk my lips.

I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

It had only taken one part-time job for me to discover that water on smooth floors was just as slippery as the smoothest ice. Tezcatlipoca and Cove ignored my advice and discovered the repercussions quickly.

My lips quirked up in a smile. Unless they planned on evaporating the water, the outcome would be the same.

The smile disappeared as the two finally found water-free ground. The intruder wasn’t only powerful but smart, too. He’d known that neither Cove nor Tezcatlipoca could use their magic teleport away like they were used to and had turned everything to his own advantage.

It was awe-inspiring, note-worthy, and terrifying.

The ice magic he’d cast was relatively low on the power scale, yet he had incapacitated two of the most powerful mages I’d ever met without breaking a sweat. To break through the barrier without shattering it, to alter the portal–he had to be an extraordinarily powerful individual. If he could cause that much damage with hardly any power, what would happen if he let loose?

My gaze drifted back to my hand, and I clenched my intact fingers. Despite all that, he’d let us off with nothing more than bruises.

Why?