Multiverse of Magic & Mistakes (Completed)

2.2.17 Chapter 17

The Mages College of Verdyn, Verdyn, 327 years ago

"Nice to properly meet you!" exclaimed the man who was waiting for Alyssia in the shadow of the stone oak. His outfit was a mix of old world and the new, loose grey shirt, heavy black jacket, sturdy boots. His skin and eyes were a rich dark brown, and his smile wide and genuine as he greeted her. "I'm Matios."

"Alyssia" she replied. Using her full name was still unfamiliar, but felt right. Matios held out a hand, that Alyssia promptly shook.

"Have we met before?" she asked softly. There was something familiar about him that she could not place, but she had no memory of him. He was a master mage, in his mid-thirties, so perhaps they had crossed paths at the university?

"Only in the desert," he answered "We didn't have the opportunity to speak before you sent my group through.."

The memory came back to Alyssia, the sudden pause in the onslaught, the scramble to open portals whilst she could. Most of the time, she had not stopped to speak to any of the mages, she had only instructed them to hurry on through the door.

"Thank you," continued Matios, "I didn't get the chance to say so sooner, but thank you for everything you have done to get us here."

Alyssia felt the blush rising in her cheeks and nodded. A lot of people had been thanking her lately, and she was not sure how to take their praise. To say 'It was nothing' wasn't right, it downplayed her efforts, so usually, she said nothing at all.

"As you know, Reynold wants us to investigate inter-world travel and its consequences," began Alyssia. She had said these words so many times, to so many different mages over the past few days, it had become a practised speech. "We want to discover how I open doorways between the worlds and see if anyone else here in Verdyn also possesses that ability. So, I am making my way down the register of everyone here, trying to teach each mage how I opened the portals and to see if they can replicate it. Are you ready?"

"Yes!" exclaimed Matios eagerly.

"Good!" Alyssia smiled, and continued in her practised script "So, have you much experience at creating portals?"

"Yes, I'm a teleporter. I worked in the rations distribution in the Towers.."

Alyssia skipped over all the introductory stuff in her spiel and lunched straight into the complex nature of casting inter-world portals. She took out her notebook of iterations of the modified portal rune. Well, not her actual notebook, which was now considered a precious artefact, but an exact duplicate of it. Matios flicked slowly through the pages, as had many, many others before him.

Alyssia dared not hope. There had been other master level mages who had failed. There had been other master level teleporters who had failed, then shouted in frustration, convinced that they should be able to create portals as Alyssia could. She had felt like screaming with them, for they were right. None of this made any sense... but there was something about Matios. Something she could not yet put a name upon.

When the shadows of the day had grown long, and Matios was finally ready to make his first attempt, Alyssia was hopping from foot to foot in nervous anticipation. But nothing happened. Nothing happened on his second try either.

Alyssia tried again, with a slightly different explanation, and then Matios tried to open an inter-world portal for the third time.

With a soft pop, the portal flared into existence.

Alyssia was not sure who was most surprised or swore the loudest, her or Matios.

"Holy shit, have I done it? Is that it?" he asked, staring at the oval of blackness, with fraying green edges in awe. She waved her hands, a twist of a masters charm to check for portal stability, and smiled to herself, for she could not detect anything wrong.