Rolas wore a distressed look as he watched Jollis bandaging his injured ankle. "Wanderer, you must get that treated," he finally said when Jollis faltered as he tried to place his weight upon it.

"I have treated the worst of it," said Jollis without looking up. "I had a bit of salve remaining from the last time I was similarly injured. The torn tendon is mended. The rest will have to heal naturally."

"But--"

Jollis stood, tested his foot once more, and lifted his head. "The only Healer available is the one who services Verano and Yurton. They cannot be alerted to my activities."

"It would appear Mage Verano already believes there is a danger to him. He now has two warriors standing guard outside his quarters."

"But there has been no movement against me that you can see?"

"None, Wanderer."

Jollis nodded once. "What of the runes?"

"Hurus should be here shortly with news. But ... what are you going to do next?"

Several times during a fitful night's sleep this very question had plagued him. When he had finally awoken before dawn and further slumber eluded him, he had considered summoning a Farview with Kyllos. But where his mentor had given him this assignment in such a clandestine manner, it was unlikely Kyllos wished to speak of it openly.

Jollis uttered a short sigh, and the laced fingers of Rolas flexed and drew tighter in response to his master's uncertainty. "If more evidence points to questionable activities on the part of Mage Verano, I will confront him and give him a chance to explain."

Rolas' eyes widened. "Is that not dangerous?"

"Yes, but it is the right thing to do. The accused is simply that until he is confronted with his alleged crimes and can offer no defense."

"But if he is acting in an inappropriate manner, what are you to do?"

Jollis was spared the necessity of answering when Hurus burst into the quarters. Jollis held up a hand. "Before you speak, pause, regain your calm, and then ask yourself what it would have looked like to a potential enemy were he to see you running to my quarters."

Hurus blinked, then lowered his gaze as he caught his breath. "I beg forgiveness, Wanderer. I was not thinking clearly."

"Obviously. If I sound harsh, it is because we cannot afford any more mistakes." He slid his injured foot forward. "My own was bad enough, and needs to be the last. Now, what news have you?"

"The runes from the pearl have been interpreted."

Rolas gave his compatriot an anxious look.

Jollis drew in a breath and let it go slowly. "And what has been found?"

Hurus shuffled his feet. "I am having trouble believing it and wonder if my friend is in error."

"Stop stalling," Jollis declared. "Tell me."

"He has stated the runes are evidence of energies from ... from a transdimensional Portal."

Rolas uttered a small gasp.

Jollis narrowed his eyes and steeled his face. "And he is sure of this?"

"Yes, Wanderer, he went over it several times before he contacted me. He is ... somewhat in shock about it."

"That is a vast understatement compared to how I feel right now," Rolas muttered.

Jollis stepped forward. "Enough hyperbole."

"With all due respect, Honored Wanderer, it is not," said Rolas. "The Inonni do not soil ourselves with such things. We had abandoned such heinous technology more than a century ago. Anyone who would do such a thing--"

"Mage Verano had already told me he was performing such experimentation."

Both Cohorts stared at him, incredulous.

Jollis nodded. "But only for the purpose of gathering knowledge of the Oceanus technology. There was no intent to open a Portal. Or so the Mage Master told me."

"Then the Mage Master lied, Wanderer," said Hurus in a tense, quavering voice. "As distasteful as it is for me to state. I have been told that the energy readings stored in the pearl represent attempts to fully realize a Portal."

Rolas turned to Hurus. "Did you say 'attempts?'"

"Yes. He chose that word specifically. He said it was as if he were watching journeymen Mages performing experiments to further their own skills."

"But that makes no sense. Why would we need to do such a thing for something we already know how to do?"

"I know. I said this to him. He simply repeated what he had learned from the runes."

"Enough," said Jollis. "We will not debate the implications right now. I want only facts. There will be time for contemplation later. Is there anything else?"

"Jothan is still nowhere to be found," said Hurus.

"Considering what has been discovered outside the Manor, I doubt you will ever find him," said Rolas in a dry voice. He turned to Jollis. "Please forgive me for pressing you on this question, and I will understand if you choose not to answer it, but what will you do if you confirm Mage Verano has indeed done the distasteful acts of which you accuse him?"

"I do not know," said Jollis.

The Cohorts exchanged a look.

"And if I did, it is perhaps best you remain ignorant. After I am gone, you will still need to answer to the Mage Master and the Holy Order."

"I am not sure I could continue here if I knew Mage Verano had committed such unspeakable acts," Rolas said.

"It is the wise man who waits to see what opportunity presents itself," Jollis intoned. "It is the fool who commits himself to a path too early."

Both Cohorts bowed their heads.

Jollis tested his ankle once more before sliding his foot into its boot. "Now, go, please. I wish some time to meditate before I confront Mage Verano. And speak no more of this even amongst yourselves until I allow it."

"Yes, Wanderer, of course," Rolas said. They bowed their heads again and left.

Jollis finished dressing and sat upon the edge of his bed. He was not confident he could reach a proper meditative state. Events were affecting him far more deeply than he would admit, as he could be nothing less than a pillar of strength until it was over. But Rolas' question haunted him. Just what would he do?

Inonni law provided little for dealing with such problems among their own kind, as many such matters were left to common sense. A higher power was always available to intervene, dispense advice, arbitrate, weigh evidence, and offer fair judgment. But the only higher power was the Holy Order. If the Mage Master were indeed committing acts so antithetical to Inonni Enlightenment, his only recourse was Elder Yurton.

The thought filled him with a sense of dread, but not from the simple anxiety of being scrutinized and judged by the Elder. Such things Jollis could set aside. This reached further, as if covering some horrible truth which he did not want to see.

Jollis sighed. Sometimes knowing how his own psyche worked to such a degree was more a bane than a boon.

When Uroddus realized he could hear the debate in the Chamber of Equals while still a full corridor away, he hurried his footsteps.

"And I am telling you this will flat out not work!" shouted Mage Elder Q'toll.

"And we are telling you the numbers say it will work!" came the return volley from a younger voice.

"Feh! You and your blasted numbers!"

"These numbers have proven themselves to work time and time again!" was the reply, this time in Katla's rather agitated voice, followed by a rustle of parchments. "We have predicted the behavior of Portals with these formulae to an accuracy of ninety-nine point nine nine--"

"Argh! Numbers, numbers, numbers! That's all magic is to you impudent know-it-alls!"

"With all due respect, Master Q'toll," said the relatively calm but strained voice of Q'kollan. "She has a point. You may not like it, but facts do not lie."

"No, no, no!" cried another Mage. "They are asking a Portal to behave in a manner that it was never intended to behave."

"It will if you apply the new formula!" shouted another younger voice.

"And just how do you expect to totally reverse the flow of energy inside the matrix? For that is what you are demanding of it. You may as well ask water to flow uphill!"

Uroddus appeared at the entrance and adjusted his spectacles as he called out, "And if I saw such a feat, I would assume a Mage reasonably skilled in transport magic was nearby."

Q'toll turned to him, eyes blazing. "Of course, I would come to expect you to side with them! Really, what more was your installation into the seat of Guild power than simply to elevate the Empiricists to a position far above the station they deserve?"

"That was uncalled for, Master Q'toll," Q'kollan declared.

Uroddus held up a hand. "He is within his right to say what he wishes to me in this room." He turned towards the Mage Elder. "I stand by any and all ranks I have granted since taking office. All, I believe, were merited. And I do not come to support one side over the other, only to see progress made."

Katla marched forward and thrust a sheaf of parchments at him. "And we have made progress, even if some are determined not to recognize it."

"I recognize solid evidence that I can witness with my own eyes," Q'toll retorted. "Not numbers on a ledger or fanciful theories!"

Uroddus looked over the first of the parchments and raised an eyebrow. "I do admit the complexity is taxing my ability to follow the line of equations from one derivation to the other."

"Those first sheets are just the underlying foundation," Katla said. "A sort of a mathematical proof which told us what we want to do is even possible."

"To be fair to both sides," Q'kollan said. "I, too, find what is being proposed to be highly unorthodox. It does appear to fly in the face of what we know of Portal mechanics."

"It can work," Katla said, though in a weaker voice. "But we know it's going to take some effort."

Q'toll threw up his free hand and turned away as he muttered, "A vast understatement if I ever heard one."

"You worded your statement in a way which indicates even you believe there may be the slightest bit of merit to the theory," said Uroddus.

Q'toll rounded on him and thumped his staff against the floor. Uroddus noticed a few more Elders now sporting staffs as well. Q'yros had always lamented how modern Mages never bothered with such accouterments to their detriment. He wondered if their sudden preponderance was a way for the others to honor him. Or, more likely, to show their support for someone whom they would have preferred as Guildmaster over Uroddus.

"Do not test me, Guildmaster," Q'toll growled. "And do not patronize me. It is always safe to say a man would not drown in water if he had gills. Yet we are not about to see a man with gills anytime soon." He turned to Katla. "Any more than what you propose can come true anytime soon, either!"

Uroddus repressed a small sigh as he looked around. He had initially believed the Guild had once more separated into Traditionalist and Empiricist camps. Yet as he looked more closely, he saw more of the younger Traditionalists congregating with Katla and her peers. His attempt to integrate the two camps had only shifted the dividing line; now it lay between generations.

He wondered how Katla and her informal team had come up with such complex equations in such a short period of time until he noticed the redness of Katla's eyes and spied her trying not to yawn. She had not been in bed the night before and had been absent when he had awakened that morning, but he had assumed she had come to bed at least once to rest.

"Then I would suggest the first order of business would be to apply the equations on an actual Portal and see if they will work," Uroddus said.

"Preposterous notion!" shouted Q'toll, and several other Mage Elders nodded or called out "Hear! Hear!" in support. "It is far too dangerous. If they actually achieve a reversal, it could very well blow the Portal apart!"

"In this case, I am forced to agree, Guildmaster," said Q'kollan. "Even the chamber we reserve for teaching apprentices how to manipulate a Portal may not afford enough protection. Some energy may be transported through the continuum a short distance outside the chamber."

"We thought of that as well," Katla said. "We don't intend to use a Portal at the Guild Hall."

Q'toll frowned at her. "And just where do you propose to do it?" He snorted. "I suppose your friends the Rogue Mages will--"

"Expatriates," Uroddus corrected.

"Rogue Mages will provide what you want!"

"No, we don't intend to ask the EXPATRIATES for assistance," Katla shot back. "Not when there is a far better candidate, one which will allow us to do exactly what we intend if we're successful."

"And what would that be?" Uroddus asked.

Katla turned to him. "The Inonni have not usurped every Overlord Portal. We were thinking of using the Portal located at the old D'yoran Manor. It's been abandoned the longest and likely will not be under any sort of observation by the Inonni."

"This is where I must protest, unfortunately," said Q'kollan. "We have no idea what state of repair the Portal is in. From what I understand, Gronnus D'yoran was not doing well financially until the final days leading to the occupation. During his brief spate of wealth, there is no record he had a Mage properly tune his Portal anytime in the near past."

"There is no other one we can use," Katla retorted. "There are only two other Manors which have not been in some way directly occupied by the Inonni. And from what we learned of Overlord Gronnus, it is likely he had frequently visited other Overlords from his Portal, while the other two were more insular. Overlords tended to use each others' Portals as foci for their own Portals, and Gronnus even more so. Repeated transit will have left resonances lingering along those paths which could make our plan possible."

"Please summarize the intended end result," Uroddus said. He lifted the sheaf of parchments. "So I do not have to read through all this on the spot to find out."

Katla sighed and barely suppressed a roll of her eyes. She hated overly simplifying such complex topics.

"Rest assured I will read this in detail later in my office," Uroddus said.

Katla appeared only slightly mollified. "This is a very crude explanation: we want to send a pulse of energy to each of the other Overlord Portals under Inonni control and burn out their central gemstones." She paused. "Collateral damage will take out enough of the remaining mechanism to render it useless."

"She is understating the result," Q'kollan said in a serious voice. "If these equations prove effective, it will likely result in a ... sizable explosion of each of the affected Portal devices, since she will be channeling the immense energies in the transdimensional realm."

Uroddus' eyebrows rose as he found the equation which indicated the power output. "'Sizable' is an understatement as well."

"And before you ask, yes, we thought about how anyone nearby may be caught up in the explosion," Katla said in a subdued voice. "But as Master Q'kollan stated, we're feeding back transdimensional energies into the conventional realm. The amount of power we are dealing with is so huge that we can control it only so much and--"

"And why should it matter?!" an Elder in the back shouted, "Let them die! They are invaders! Conquerors!"

"We have no idea who would be standing around these things when they went up!" Katla cried in a cracked voice. "We could very well take out innocent people."

"Can some work be done without proceeding to the final result?" Uroddus asked. "Let us not debate ethics until we know if it will work."

"Yes, but we have to start now. As in today. We need a Portal powered and targeted at Gronnus' Portal. We believe it has enough of a lingering resonance to be used safely as a focus."

"Then I will order one powered immediately," said Uroddus. He turned towards the grumbling Mage Elders. "And I fully expect some of you will accompany them. I do not want this to be an effort which is wholly one side or the other. I do not even want 'sides,' if I have not made that abundantly clear by now. Mage Q'kollan, would you coordinate the effort?"

"I will certainly try," Q'kollan said, though his tone was dubious as he looked over to his compatriots.

Jollis approached Mage Verano's quarters, his gait slightly stiff as he fought against the pain still throbbing in his ankle. The warriors which stood on either side of the entrance trained their eyes carefully upon him, as they could spot such subtle clues in a man's stride. Jollis' stiff walk could indeed mean a fight against pain, but could also be evidence of the nervousness which went along with conspiracy.

Though doubt and guilt clouded their eyes as well. This was the Wanderer, after all. He should be above such suspicion.

Jollis stopped when the warriors performed their ritual crossing of the staffs before him. Jollis bowed his head. "I would like to see the Honored Mage Verano."

To his surprise, the warriors lifted their staffs and snapped them to their sides. They turned and stepped back from the door. "Of course, Wanderer. Mage Verano waits within."

Jollis hesitated a moment, and once more stepped back in time. The room looked as it did when he had first met Mage Jothan. A meal graced the table. One extra place had been set, but this was no surprise. Inonni tradition among those dining alone was to set an extra place as a symbol of invitation and friendship to unexpected visitors. Jollis found Verano's adherence to such a tradition to be hypocritical and quite distasteful, and he had to stop his body from tensing in response to his thoughts.

Verano put down the piece of fruit he was eating and dabbed his lips with a napkin. "Please, honored Wanderer, join me for the midday meal."

Jollis had not realized how late it had become. He did not believe he had spent that long meditating and asking for guidance from the gods. He had little appetite, but custom came first, and he bowed his head and took the prepared seat.

"Your arrival is most auspicious, Jollis," said Verano as he nudged a bowl of steaming vegetables towards his guest.

Jollis dutifully ladled some of the vegetables into his plate. "In what way?" he asked without looking up.

"There has been a most promising breakthrough in our efforts to seek a better relationship with the expatriate Mages of Oceanus."

This forced Jollis to pause and look up.

"It is unfortunate Mage Jothan chose to deceive us," said Verano in a somber voice. "When he gave us the information on the camp he clearly knew was already deserted."

Jollis had had similar suspicions, but hearing the same thing from Verano somehow tainted his own perspective. In the next breath, he purged himself of these thoughts. He was letting his personal feelings interfere with his task. "Yes, I had suspected such as well." Jollis paused to sample the meal upon his plate. "Has he chosen to be more cooperative?"

Jollis noticed Verano paused in his response, choosing instead to poke at the food on his plate for a few moments. "I have managed to extract from his thoughts enough information to target a Portal to his associate, a fellow expatriate named Marlon."

Jollis was familiar with the name. "To his exact location?"

"Indeed! I can deliver you right next to him, which will facilitate plans nicely."

"And what plans are these?"

"These constant deceptions require us to be more aggressive. I am tasking you with bringing Marlon here so we can negotiate with him directly."

Jollis put down his fork and lifted his head. "Are you tasking me with an abduction, Honored Mage Master?"

Verano's face became drawn. "I do not like this course of action, but my hand has been forced."

Jollis sensed much truth behind this statement, which made things less clear in his mind. "And what will become of Mage Marlon?"

"I will attempt to make him see reason and provide me with the ability to reach others of his brethren."

Jollis considered and suddenly realized an implication he had missed. "One moment. You stated Jothan had provided you the ability to reach Marlon."

Verano's lips spread into a slow and slightly uneasy smile.

"Jothan alone? You received no other assistance from the thoughts of others?"

Verano's smile became a little more natural. "Indeed."

For a moment, Jollis' misgivings were overwhelmed by a rising sense of excitement. "You have done it. You have realized your goal of reducing the number of people required to provide memories for a Portal to one."

And now another pause, and Jollis saw one of the Mage's eyes twitch. "I have indeed made some significant breakthroughs, Wanderer."

Jollis began to manage his emotions and silently chided himself for letting them get the better of him once more. He went over what he had heard and the Mage's reaction, and now suspicion replaced excitement. "And you have eliminated the safety problems? You can probe a mind that deeply without concern?"

Verano shifted in his seat. Jollis turned away from the Mage in the guise of reaching for some bread. He assessed the distance between the table and the door, what likely routes two warriors would take when they entered, what defensive or offensive moves they might make and how Jollis might counter them with one bad ankle. His goal would be to disarm one as quickly as possible and thus give him a weapon against the other.

"Significant progress has been made," Verano said, his voice strained. "That is all I can tell you at the moment."

Jollis placed a piece of bread upon his plate. "This is most excellent to hear. But assuming Jothan was indeed working contrary to our goals, I cannot imagine he is much pleased by this development."

After a pause, Jollis found the Mage staring at him. "What makes you say such a thing?" Verano asked.

"It follows logically, Mage Verano, that is all."

Verano slowly nodded.

"Would you be amenable to me meeting with him before I execute this new task?"

Verano's fork clattered to his plate. Jollis noted this and the challenge in the Mage's voice when he spoke. "Why do you need to do such a thing?"

"I tend to explore as many aspects of a task as possible to ensure its success. I wish to understand Jothan's mindset, and see if he is willing to tell me more of Marlon."

"Do you really need to do such a thing when all you need to do is take the man through the Portal?"

"I am considering a more friendly approach."

Verano narrowed his eyes. "I do not understand."

Jollis paused to take a bite of his bread and pick a piece of fruit. Letting an enemy stew in his own anxiety for a few moments was a classic technique of his. "With all due respect, Honored Mage, I feel we may be rushing into taking such an aggressive stand. This is contradictory to the path of Enlightenment. I wish to better understand Mage Marlon so I may approach him as a friend and convince him of the advantages of associating with the Inonni."

"And with no intended disrespect to you, Wanderer, I suggest you are not seeing the entire forest for the trees."

Jollis looked into the Mage's stony face, but found no further evidence outside the faint emphasis of his words which indicated Verano already knew of Jollis' mission the day before.

Verano forced a smile. "It is wiser men than I who guides us."

Jollis felt a twinge. "You speak of the Holy Order?"

Verano nodded once. "Everything I do is guided by them."

"By Elder Yurton."

"He is one Elder, yes, but he speaks for all. He is the Holy Order, for the time he remains here."

Jollis paused. "Has he directed all your research as well?"

Verano folded his hands before him on the table, looking both relieved and anxious at the same time. "Yes, he has, Wanderer," he said, his voice subdued, even sad. "Everything I do is directed by him. I follow in a desire to do what is needed and right for the Inonni."

Jollis had no response at first and returned to his meal, even though he had even less appetite now than when he had arrived. "Then if I wish to see Mage Jothan and take my suggested approach, I will need to speak with Elder Yurton first?"

The Mage's fingers twitched and laced together tightly. "You will not be able to speak with Jothan, as he has been sent away."

Jollis tilted his head. "Away?"

Verano nodded once and offered no more.

"Where?" When Verano did not respond, he asked in a louder voice, "What has become of Mage Jothan?"

In the pause that followed, Jollis prepared himself. He scrutinized Verano for the smallest gesture which could trigger a spell to summon the guards.

"He has been sent to another Manor, where he can be better treated."

"Treated?"

Verano lowered his gaze for a moment. "I regret to say I pushed him a little too hard in my eagerness to further my research. He suffered some lingering effects from my efforts which are beyond the capabilities of our Healer to resolve."

"Will he recover?"

"Given time, yes, the prospects are good."

Jollis was in a quandary. What he saw from the Mage was squarely between the two extremes he would rather have seen. He knew Verano had lied about Jothan's disposition, but he sensed extreme guilt as well. And he had a hint of what he had adamantly hoped would not be true, that this horrible corruption of Inonni values had reached beyond the Mage and into the Holy Order itself.

"This is good to hear," said Jollis in a neutral voice.

Verano uttered a windy sigh. "I have been beside myself. I do not wish to repeat this mistake."

"And if I retrieve Marlon for you, you do not anticipate him suffering the same fate as Jothan?"

"No, I do not."

Jollis had only to glance at Verano's rigid stance to know that was a blatant lie, even if the initial regret were sincere. "When do you wish me to go about this task?"

"Elder Yurton is interested in bringing closure as quickly as possible. He hopes you could go later this afternoon."

"That is short notice, Honored Mage. I need time to prepare."

"Even for a task as simple as this?"

"Especially one as simple as this. It is in the simple things we often miss the complications. I would rather wait until tomorrow, if that is at all possible."

Verano uttered a small sigh. "I will speak with Elder Yurton."

"Thank you."

Jollis realized he had likely raised the suspicions of both Verano and Yurton, but he had finally accepted he had to heal his ankle before he could be at all effective. He had hoped to persevere as he had done in the past, but as long as the pain continued to assault him, he would be at diminished capacity.

He believed he could afford no mistakes in the days to come.

Like all Overlord Portal buildings, it stood to the side from the main Manor grounds, set off like a small shrine to the Overlord way of life. This one had fallen into decay long before the heyday of the Overlords had ended. With the spring, the weeds had surged and spread, wild vines twining up the posts holding the dead torches which ringed the clearing.

One of the doors stood open, canted slightly as one of the upper hinges had begun to give way. It swung and squeaked in the breeze, the stone cracked around the mounting point of the hinge. Inside, the Portal device still lay pristine though dormant, its energies having waned since the time it had been used to deliver a former Overlord to his destiny far earlier than the others.

And yet power suddenly surged and thrummed, and the ground vibrated. Bits of crumbled plaster from makeshift and inadequate repairs wafted to the ground. The open door trembled, and its closed companion rattled in its frame.

A bolt of blue-white lightning blasted down from above into the chamber, enveloping the old power column in coruscating energies. A pinpoint abruptly expanded to a sphere, and shadows suddenly rushed forward at impossible speed from the distance, resolving themselves into two figures who now stepped into the deserted building.

Master Q'kollan scrambled away from the Portal entrance as quickly as his elderly frame would allow, while Katla took a moment to look around, one foot still inside the ethereal continuum. Q'kollan turned and uttered a frustrated sigh.

Katla looked at him. "What?"

Before Q'kollan could reply, Katla took a sedate step forward. A breath later, the Portal collapsed behind her with a reverberating boom. The broken hinge separated from its frame, and the door fell to the ground with a clang like a large gong. Q'kollan jumped at the noise and clutched his chest.

"If you had let me apply some of the Inonni equations we had derived to the Portal matrix, the closure and energy drain-off would have been far more calm," Katla said as she strode forward.

"I would advise you not to play such mathematical games with this old Mage's life, thank you," Q'kollan said with a quaver to his voice despite its seriousness.

"We should consider applying the equations at some point." Katla stepped past Q'kollan and peered outside. "We may attract the notice of the Inonni if we keep opening and closing Portals in our old and clunky way."

"I'll have you know this 'clunky' means you speak of has served us well for several centuries."

"That in itself is wrong. There should have been some advancement in all that time." Katla paused at the threshold, then stepped into the sunlight, shielding her eyes from the sun. "This place really is deserted."

"So we hope," said Q'kollan as he stepped beside Katla. "If no black marketeers or other rogues have set up shop. And just what did you mean by that comment?"

Katla spun towards him. "It's just what I said. That's too long to go without discovering something new. If we had, we might not be in this mess. Or at least the Inonni would have had to invade by honest means."

"You cannot tell me you are still bitter about the downplayed role of the Empiricists."

Katla frowned. "You heard what happened back in the Chamber of Equals. It's like nothing had ever happened. The Traditionalists still want to shut us up and dismiss our work."

Q'kollan sighed and rubbed his temples when dull pain throbbed behind them. "Too much aggravation on too little sleep," he muttered.

"What was that?"

The older Mage lowered his hands. "Nothing, Master Q'yoona, other than to point out what you perhaps did not notice: I have been siding with you and your friends more often than not."

Katla's expression softened. "I'm sorry, Master Q'kollan."

"Why are you so upset? I have seen disparagement of the Empiricists roll off your back far easier than this."

Katla folded her arms and frowned. She turned her head towards the Portal building and marched back towards it. "We better check the integrity of the Portal device."

Q'kollan sighed and rolled his eyes before following. He winced and stumbled as one of his knees stiffened. He sank to his other knee and rubbed the offending joint until the discomfort eased.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He was not very fond of Portal travel. Rarely did it affect a body physically, but where Mages were both conduits and sinkholes for magical energy, as their bodies aged, their normal elderly maladies could be exacerbated by the continuum's energy flux.

Which was a convenient cover, for Portal travel simply made Q'kollan nervous. He had once heard a young Mage express his belief that a Portal effectively disassembled matter at one end and reassembled it at the other. Q'kollan did not take kindly to the idea of his molecules being scattered across the world.

Q'kollan stood and stepped inside the building. Katla was slowly circling the device, holding a many-faceted, glowing crystal in her hand. As she moved, the colors in the crystal changed and flashed.

"This thing is horribly out of alignment, even given the time it's been abandoned," said Katla. "One of the reflector mirrors is flawed."

"What matters is the heart of the Portal," said Q'kollan.

"The gem is infested with residual energies. Overlord Gronnus had little clue as to how to properly maintain a Portal. He of all people should know how to bleed off the energies after extensive use. I doubt he even bothered!"

"Then we cannot use this Portal after all," said Q'kollan in some irritation when his knee twinged again. "We will have to look for another one."

Katla did not respond until she had completed a full circuit around the column and lowered the crystal. She turned to the older Mage. "On the contrary, this is better than I had expected."

Q'kollan frowned. "I beg your pardon? Do you have some new way of miraculously cleansing a Portal gemstone which takes anything less than a few days of time we do not have?"

"No, I want the residual energies. They're actually an advantage."

Q'kollan sighed and rubbed his temples again. "You have lost me, Master Q'yoona."

"We can use them to assist in targeting the other Overlord Portals in case the Inonni removed the enchantments which would allow their use as Portal foci."

Q'kollan raised an eyebrow. "You can target Portals without a focus? You cannot possibly have unraveled that much of the Inonni technology."

"Not the way they do it, since we do not know yet how to extract memories from people. But we understand the principles of projecting the focusing energies from the origin."

Q'kollan shook his head. "You will have to explain that one to me."

Katla allowed herself a small smile and hoped the older Mage would not think it was at his expense. "The Inonni Portal technology works on the projection of focusing energy from the source instead of requiring a focus at the target, correct?"

"Yes, that much I understand. But they still require a means to direct it, which is what they use human memory for."

"Right, but whenever you target a Portal by whatever means, the focusing energy travels in both directions as the Portal energizes. It passes through the central gemstone and leaves a faint impression."

"You again tell me something I already know. It is how we can determine the last target of a Portal device." Q'kollan paused. "Are you stating it contains enough information to actual direct a Portal?"

"By applying the right equations, yes, though it works only crudely. If the focus was anything other than another Portal device, it might not work. It would be like trying to shoot an arrow through a pea from a league away."

"And how much do the odds improve when the focus is another Portal device?"

"It's still like shooting an arrow at something a league away. But now the target is the size of a dreadnought."

Q'kollan considered. "And how many times have you attempted this feat?"

Katla paused. "Well, none."

"Ah."

"It's not like we had a choice!" Katla snapped. "Maybe we could rig up a test back at the Guild, but I doubt it. And I don't want to do anything which might alert the Inonni to what we're doing." She glanced at the Portal device. "This is the best chance we've got, Master Q'kollan. I doubt we could find another Portal in the little time we have."

Q'kollan nodded. "Very well, you have convinced me." He withdrew a blue pearl from his pocket. "Now let's activate a proper Portal focus and get the rest of your team here."

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