Storyverse

Chapter 4: Tea, Time, Uncle and Forbidden Knowledge

–I told you that you shouldn't go anywhere now!

–Yes... maybe you were right... but I'm sorry, now I simply can't sit still. Who were they, and why did they specifically arrange for us to go to them? Do you really think that they will just let us live in peace?!

These four were already home again, in the capital of Arai. Oliver was having a heated discussion with his wife about the events with those strangers.

–Well then, surprise me, what are you going to do now?! You're right, we don't know anything about them, and therefore we won't be able to do anything!

–I'll go to...

Oliver paused. Ciel, however, continued for him:

–To where you like to disappear from time to time, after which Lady Cirael and I look for you all day long? I remember you did it previous month some times.

Oliver smiled stupidly and, poking the soup with a fork, replied:

–Yeah. You haven't been there before and don't know Schrodinger, right? I didn't want to show you that place, but... this time the question is really serious.

There was an awkward silence. Only the sound of a fork, with which Clain was stirring the soup for show, sounded in the room. Cirael was ready to strangle Oliver, but she understood that, firstly, he did not need air to live, and secondly, she still loved him. Slapping her hands on the table and standing up, the winged one said:

–Well then, lead the way! And don't deny it, you don't need this soup anyway, so we're going right now!

Sighing and putting down the cutlery, Oliver also stood up from the table, and after him saying "well, let's go," everyone else got up too. Oliver's expression became cheerful again, and he led the others along the streets of the city. Although, "streets" is not the right word. Backstreets, dark and unsightly. Finally, he led everyone to a dead end and stopped with a proud look.

–Let me guess: are we're lost, aren't? – Sean asked.

–No, we are exactly where we should be.

Oliver pointed at the brick wall with a triumphant expression on his face as the others looked at each other in confusion. It was just a wall. Dirty, smelly, and even overgrown with moss. Cirael, looking at her husband with concern, asked:

–Now? Do you need to knock on the bricks in the correct order to open a passage to Diagon Alley?

–Yeah, and we're going to withdraw a couple of Galleons, – Oliver replied sarcastically, – Just a second.

The head of the family glanced at the wall. Next to it, a dagger with an engraved handle appeared in the air, which, under the strict guidance of Oliver's telekinesis, began to scratch the silhouette of a door on the wall. When it was finished, the dagger disappeared, and Oliver said:

–Why is a raven like a writing desk?

The "image" of the door glowed with purple light and, as if it were really a thin layer of plywood with the image of a brick wall, the "door" opened into the wall itself. Inside Clains and co. could see a dark space with stars, just like outer space. Smiling and taking his wife's arm, Oliver ran inside the door. Cirael was about to spread her wings, since she thought that there was no floor, but where she or Oliver stepped, translucent slabs of light purple energy appeared right under their feet. However, it was better not to look down – there was no bottom here, nor any walls. As Cirael and Oliver moved forward, the slabs from which they removed their foot disappeared. In the distance, a large plate of the same energy was visible. Oliver led Ciri there, along the appearing "steps", and the others followed them, still carefully.