“Home?” Triss asked incredulously. “You can actually get us home?”

“Yes! There is an extremely rare guide here on transmutational plane transport that, frankly, is useless to anyone else. But I studied multivariate dimensional portal theory under the only wizard to ever successfully conduct long distance portal experiments. Combining the two and I should be able to create a portal home!” Thomas gushed. Triss was more than a little concerned about the complete shift in personality between hide and seek Thomas and master wizard Thomas. Multiple personality disorder? No, she decided. Just a man who was more unhinged than the mad hatter. Oh. He was waiting for a reaction. Whoops.

“Thats great!” She said with an enthusiasm she didn’t completely feel. Not that she didn’t want to go home, of course. She just didn’t want to get her hopes up

“It’s amazing! We need to go, now!” He started for the door, a large brown tome tucked under one arm. Triss hesitated, but then followed after him. No point in getting the crazy man upset when he was in a good mood. He was nearly dancing as they made their way down the hallway to the ritual tower. He threw open the door when they arrived, the thundering noise of it hitting the wall echoed down the up and down the lonely hallways. The sun had come up at some point, and the ritual room was bathed in bright warm light.

Thomas flew to the shelves, bobbing up and down like a bird as he swiftly scanned everything they held. He started grabbing components and stacking them on the table, pots and jars of varying size and colours. He had placed the book down and had it open to one page, propped against the wall so he could read it easier. He spent nearly twenty minutes sorting through the different components. Triss looked over a few items on the shelf as well, though most meant absolutely nothing to her. Reginald had told her how components modified spells, and how most truly complex spells had many material requirements, but she didn’t really understand it all yet. She spotted the jar Percival had mentioned, tucked in a corner behind two empty jars.

Thomas began to draw a ritual circle in the center of the room with chalk. It was a complex web of stars, symbols and strange shapes. He wiped his sweating forehead frequently, preventing sweat from dripping onto the arcane outline.

Triss wandered over to the tall wooden window and stared out at the grassy fields in front of the castle. Off in the distance, past the gloomy forest she could see the river that ran by the town, it's blue waters shimmering in the sun. Tiny boats dotted the surface, and she remembered fondly the times she had spent watching the sun rise on the docks as she drank her forbidden coffee. She thought about Reginald and Percival, and wondered if they would be ok.

"That's it!" Thomas shouted, interrupting her thoughts. She turned to see him standing over the circle, an excited look on his face. "This should work! Only one thing left and we can go home!" She realized he wasn't speaking to her, but instead to that skull he kept. He must have had it in his robes, and had placed it just outside the circle.

A sick thought suddenly struck her, and she was speaking before thinking. "Tom, who's skull is that?" Part of her knew, now. But she couldn't bring herself to say it.

"That's my mother. I'm taking her home to heal her."

Triss phrased her next question as carefully as she could. "How...how do you plan to help her?"

"I need the rest of her, obviously. The portal separated us. She'll be fine once she has her head back." Thomas was smiling as he said it, and madness blazed in his eyes.

“What if you…can’t find her?” Triss asked cautiously.

Thomas laughed. “I’ll find her. Don’t worry, Triss. I’ll find her.” His face hardened suddenly. “I will find her. No one can stop me. No one has ever been able to stop me.”

With that, Thomas stopped talking, and began working on his spell. His hands moved in complicated patterns, bright lines forming in the air. He paused occasionally to throw a bit of one magical ingredient or another into the circle, the items bursting into puffs of smoke. The smoke swirled in a vertical circle, faster and faster until the smoke seemed almost a solid grey band of material. Thomas stood, then turned to Triss. “One more ingredient.” He stepped closer to her, then grabbed her injured hand. She tried to pull back, but his grip was too strong. He dragged her over to the circle, then ripped the wrap off her hand. The palm of her hand was covered in black, dried blood that flaked off and drifted down into the circle. Thomas squeezed her hand viciously, and the cut opened back up, hot blood pouring out and dripping to the ground. The blood burst into smoke as well, drifting into the spinning grey circle. Thomas shoved her away, and Triss fell on the floor. She tried to catch herself with her hands, but her injured hand was now slick with blood, and it slipped. She crashed into the hard stone, her cheek scraping along the rough surface.

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“That was the key, you know.” Thomas said idly, watching the smoke spin. “Portals are easy. Well, easy for me. Aiming them, that’s the trick. You still have a bit of home left in you. Me, I’ve been here too long. My blood would point back here.” He smiled. “But yours will point us straight back home.”

The smoke suddenly changed from a dark grey to a jet black. The was a brilliant flash, and Triss was momentarily blinded. She blinked until finally her vision cleared. The spinning circle was still there, but through the center she could see blue sky and pine trees. The portal had opened in a forest clearing on a hillside. And off in the distance, she could clearly see a highway with cars driving along it.

*****************

“Triss!” Reginald gasped the name as he sat bolt upright in the bed. “Where’s Triss?” His head swam suddenly, and he nearly collapsed back into the bed.

“Hmm? Oh, you’re awake!” Nert said. He shuffled over to the side of the bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Little dizzy.” Reginald admitted. “Where’s Percival? Where’s Triss?” He looked around the small bedroom, but saw no one but the elder.

“Oh, Lord Percival? He’s resting.” Nert smiled. “I hear it was a near thing, but they expect him to pull through.” He patted Reginald on the arm. “Yes, a near thing. It’s quite fortunate that Thomas fellow brought him as quickly as he did. Saved his life, I expect. Wonderful young man.”

“He’s the one…you know what? Never mind.” Reginald took a deep, cleansing breath. Anger wasn’t going to help right now. "Where is Triss?" He asked again, making sure to speak loudly so Nert could hear him.

"Oh, she went to the castle. Thomas was looking for some herbs or something to help with Percival. They should be back soon, I imagine. They've been gone a while. Tea?" The old man started shuffling off into the other room, presumably to fetch tea.

Reginald threw the covers off and swung his legs down to the floor. The movement made his head swim a little, but he quickly recovered. He nearly knocked Nert over as he dashed out the door. He was tempted to check on Percival, but decided that he was in good hands. In seconds he was out of the building and into the streets.

He had to stop twice in his mad dash through town to let his head catch up, but he only waited long enough to let the worst of the dizziness pass before he was off again. Out the gate and into the sun dappled forest, over the fields in front of the castle.

A bright flash from the castle caught his eye as he ran. Magic. Someone was casting a powerful spell. He ran harder.

*********

Home.

Triss stared through the portal in amazement. Home. It was right there, two steps away. It felt like a dream, like any moment she would wake up in Jonal's house and hit her head on the low ceiling again.

"We did it! We did it!" Thomas was dancing around the circle with the skull, swinging it around like the world most macabre recital. He finally stopped, panting to catch his breath. "We did it." He whispered.

"You...you actually did." Triss said quietly.

"Here, hold this!" Thomas shoved the skull at her, and she took it by instinct. She nearly dropped it when her brain caught up, but she didn't dare upset the insane wizard. He jumped through the portal the image shimmering like the surface of a pond as he passed through. She watched as he fell to his knees, crushing piles of soft orange pine needles under him. He grabbed a handful and threw them up into the air like confetti, the wet needles falling back quickly to cover him. He jumped back to his feet and looked back at Triss, face glowing with delight. For just a moment, Triss could see the little boy in him. The boy who lost everything when a wizard from another world played with magic. The little boy who found himself suddenly alone in a world full of dark powers and terrifying monsters. She didn't need to wonder what that would do to a child. She was holding the result in her hands.

Thomas seemed to consider something. Then he pulled his wand from his robe, and began to draw a complicated shape in the air. To Triss's astonishment, the magical lines appeared in the air, forming a web of bright glowing shapes. She hadn't expected magic to work in her home world. Thomas finished the web and the arcane symbols hovered for a moment before beginning to shrink down into a tiny speck of light. The light suddenly shot skyward, vanishing against the bright blue backdrop of a sunny sky.

Off in the distance, a dark spot appeared. It grew rapidly, turning into a small dark storm cloud. Lighting suddenly flashed down, jagged forks stabbing over and over at the distant cars on the highway. Chaos reigned as chunks of asphalt were blasted by repeated blows. She watched with disbelief as the drivers careened into one another, desperate to avoid the magical attack. Thunder cracked and rolled, almost blocking completely the distant crashing noise of lives forever changed. The lightning finally stopped, and thick black smoke rose from wrecked cars to join the fading cloud.

Thomas was on his knees, laughing maniacally. "It works!" He shouted. "I will be as a God to these mortals!"

A wave of bitter longing swept over Triss. Home was one step away, and she'd never felt further. "Damn you." She whispered. She turned to the shelf, setting the skull down as she reached for the jar. Percival had told he about it as she helped him walk to the town gate. He was a crafty one, she had to admit. He knew that Thomas would likely go to the castle, and he had given Triss the means to stop him. She picked up the canister, checking through blurry eyes to make sure she had the correct one. She hid a handful of powder in hand, then picked up the skull and waited.

Thomas eventually stood again, turning to face her. She steeled herself. She knew what she had to do.

"Throw her to me." He said.

"No."

He laughed. "Throw her to me, or else I'll come over there and teach you that lesson i warned you about."

Triss smiled sadly. "You're forgetting something important."

Thomas stepped right up to the portal, glaring at her. "I highly doubt that. Give her to me."

Triss wiped the tears running down her cheek on her sleeve. Then she sighed. "Yes, you are."

"Fine. I'll play along. What am I forgetting." He said with a sneer.

"I work for a dark wizard."

Triss tossed the skull, aiming for a spot about a foot in front of the portal. Thomas leapt to grab it, and Triss flung the powder from her other hand into the circle. There was a bright flash as the anti-magic dust was sucked into the portals edge.

The portal collapsed instantly, and Thomas's head rolled across the floor.

When Reginald arrived five minutes later, he found her huddled in the corner, crying.