“Anyway, we have a website I’ll share with you with a ton of information to help. It has class registration and times, maps, events, our laws, some generic overviews, and we’ve even been working on adding some of our library books as well. If you have any suggestions, let me know.” he said it in such a way that it sounded like he would be the one implementing the suggestions.
“Don’t tell me you manage the website as well?”
He laughed, his head falling back to look at the lights reflected in the ceiling. “You caught me. I’m not much of a programmer, though, so it has a few issues,” he said sheepishly.
I let out a low whistle, impressed. “Do you even have time to show me around like this?”
“Not really. But I like doing stuff like this, helping people like my father.”
I grimaced. It sounded like a fast track to getting yourself killed. Cove misunderstood, adding on “Don’t worry, I get a lot of time off. Constructing the portals is something I do on my own time.” This time, I cringed from the bad wordplay with web portals and magical portals.
Cove continued, “Sitting down and waiting for something to happen is…not my thing.” He wanted to say something different, cutting himself off at the last second.
Silence draped over us for the rest of our walk.
The building containing the portal was small, maybe even smaller than the registration office. The entrance corridor had a white wooden door on either side, a stone label beside them, indicating their use. One of the doors was for ‘arrivals,’ the other for ‘departures.’ The departure room was small, smaller even than the registration office had been. The vast majority of the room was taken up by a giant spaciotemporal mage symbol engraved on the floor, which gently brushed each wall of the perfectly square room. The lines of the engraved symbol glowed a steady deep blue, curiously matching Cove and Jacob’s eyes.
I stopped at the border of the symbol, hesitant to cross the line without explanation. Cove and Ani had no reservations, striding confidently over the line. Cove raised an eyebrow at my pause, Ani mimicking the gesture as best a cat can. Hesitantly, I stepped over the lines myself, marveling at the steady glow.
“Each of the portals has one of these emblems, which have been tied together with threads of magic so other mages can use them. Spacetime mages are encouraged to donate power with each use, so other mages don’t feel a major drain. To use them, you have to reach out for the power flowing beneath your feet and focus on your destination portal.”
I looked at Cove skeptically. “I don’t know the destination portal.”
He gave me a reassuring smile and pulled his phone out, tapping away at the screen. He shoved the phone in my face, and I gently took it from his hand. A map was pulled up with a dozen or so numbered destination points.
“I’ll bring you and Ani to whichever one you want this time, so you can get a feel for how it works.”
Gratefully, I gave him the number of the portal closest to my apartment, only a couple of blocks away.
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“You should probably pick Ani up.”
I did as suggested, bringing the little monster up to my chest. Ani nuzzled my chin, and I pulled away, annoyed. “Stop that.”
Cove gently grabbed my elbow, connecting the three of us. “Focus on feeling the magic.” He said.
The emblem beneath our feet flared, blinding me as I felt the calm waters of Cove’s magic fall beneath our feet, sinking into the oceans of the magic of the emblem. Watery threads of magic spider-webbed from the portal in a dizzying array of magic. Cove plucked at one, tugging us along to the end of the thread. Reality fell from my feet, my stomach dropping as the world shifted around us.
The ground returned just as fast, the world encapsulating us as though we’d never left, the shining blue light from beneath my feet dying back down to a more muted state. Cove’s cool hand left my elbow, and I peeked out of one eye to see a room identical in size to the one we’d left but constructed of wood instead. I fully opened my eyes to see Cove’s smiling face. “That’s how you do it! Got it?”
“Surprisingly, yes.”
His broad smile widened even further, nearly splitting his face. “Perfect! Make sure you check out the available lessons on your phone when you get the chance. I’ll see you around!”
I gave him a small smile in return. “Thank you for showing me around.” I waved him goodbye with a single hand and walked out the door into a dark floored hallway with neutral walls. The exit dumped me right where the map had promised, and it was a short walk home.
Ember wasn’t sitting on the couch, waiting as I unlocked the door, and I thanked my lucky stars for it. I deposited Ani on the sofa and moved to clean up my Heirs sketches from my guestroom, shoving them quietly out of eyesight into a drawer for later. The lock clicked as I slammed the drawer shut, Ember entering with an uncharacteristically quiet “Hayden?”
Frowning, I called, “Be out in a second!”
Ember was waiting pitifully at the entryway to the living room, her shoulders slumped and eyes on the ground. I stopped a few feet in front of her, worried. “Em?”
“Sorry I lost Ani.” She whispered. “Oreo escaped for a few seconds when I opened the door for a package earlier, and I almost had a heart attack. I hadn’t considered how stressful his escapes were for you.”
I sighed, placing my hands on her shoulders. “I shouldn’t have expected you to be able to keep an eye on him, Em. I don’t blame you.”
The blame rested solely on Ani’s smug shoulders.
Her nervous eyes met mine, and her disappointment turned to irritation. “No kidding! I ran all around the house, checked every window, and I cannot figure out how he escaped! What if one of my cats figures it out?!” She worried.
“Somehow, I don’t think that’ll be a problem.” Her cats couldn’t teleport, after all. “Ani’s a unique case.”
Ember scoffed. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath in, and let it out. The next time she spoke, her voice was calm. “Sorry. I feel bad, and I was worried. For him, you, and my own cats.”
I collapsed on the couch, Ember following to sit cross-legged on the floor in front of Ani. Avoiding eye contact, I said, “You’re right. You did lose my cat….I guess you won’t be getting that collectors edition after all.”
She shot up from her spot like a rocket, looming over me. “The deal was to try!”
Still staring at the ceiling, I responded, “I dunno..” and received a swift punch in the shin for my comment.
“Ow!” I sat up and rubbed the spot where she’d hit me, glaring. “Now I really won’t get it for you!”
“Oh, please.” She flipped her ponytail over her shoulder, her other hand on her hip. “That was barely a tap.”
To prove her wrong, I rolled the pant leg up and stuck my leg out at her, theatrically gesturing toward the unmistakable red mark in the shape of a fist. She sniffed and looked down her nose at me.
“We both know your skin turns red if someone so much as touches you. It’ll be gone tomorrow.”
I used the ‘injured’ leg to kick her in the side and received an unexpectedly firm grip on it in return. “Did something happen?” Ember asked, rotating my leg this way and that.
I sat up, leaning uncomfortably far forward on my arms, stretching to see what she was talking about.
Shit. I’d forgotten about the still-healing cuts I’d gotten. I broke her grip, smoothly yanking the pant leg back down. “Ani was playing with my leg.”
She looked doubtfully at the healing scabs. “Are you sure? They look more than a few days old.”
“I’m sure.” I rolled up off the couch, standing with far more grace than I had a few weeks ago. Ember’s eyes burned into my back. Yanking the fridge open purposefully, I said, “I’m hungry. Are you staying for dinner?”
And that, thankfully, was the end of that.
She skipped out the door after dinner, humming happily, my injuries forgotten. With a few hours left in the evening, I sat down in my office, opened the text from Cove, and began planning.