Err of Aquarius

Pyro-portation

Gemini watched the encounter between the offworlder and the librarian. In truth, she thought it was herself who'd set off whatever mental alarm had sent Janus leaping downstairs like some legend of old. Gemini's heart began to thump in her chest as Janus reached out with his telekinetic grasp and-

Wait a minute. There was someone else on the first floor. A pyromancer from Armestis.

Ah, Gemini thought to herself. You're the one who will face his wrath.

But as Gemini watched on, Janus shifted from a vigilant defender to a swooning boy in love.

So even my cousin, the one horned sage, has time for love. Gemini thought to herself.

The two lovers levitated up to the top floor and got handsy on the ledge where anyone could see them, whether they were hiding or not!

As soon as the girl disappeared, a fire erupted from the top floor. Judging by Janus somber reaction, Gemini assumed he was expecting the woman to combust into flames!

Did she just commit suicide? In a fucking library of all places!

The empath soothed her mind enough to scry Janus' thoughts. Apparently the pyromancer had perfected some means of instant teleportation without a machine or ancient artifact.

To get information on how she did it, she entered Janus' mind. After illing the memory of the pyromancer explaining the process, Gemini sat like a fly on the wall. Comfortably out of the way and harmless to the memory.

The two lovers, who were younger than they are now, sat in the library. It was empty aside from the items, the two of them and the couch they sat on. Apparently  Librarian Esposa at the time had taken the night off and left Janus in charge.

The fire mage and the dual mage sat on a sofa of orange velvet. Janus placed an awkward arm around the girl, their knees touching as she dove into the explanation.

"The universe is constantly expanding," The pyromancer explained. "And a lot of people theorize it's warming while it's doing so. The theory is that ithe universe is expanding because the core of the universe is letting off great heat which causes the universe to spread out. Because heat expands, you know."

The pyromancer talked so fast, the round glasses on her face kept sliding down. Janus adjusted her glasses twice before removing them from her nose. Melissa-

So that's her name!

-Just continued with her explanation on how she discovered the form of teleportation.

"Now when a phoenix hatches," the memory of Melissa gestured to the egg on her lap, "It releases a vast amount of heat. Unfortunately, the universe cant compensate for such it because the heat released from a hatchling is just as strong as whatever sits at the core of our universe."

Janus' memory had an image of two giant explosions colliding against one another.

"That's why it's rare to see a phoenix hatch. They decide to lay at rest at the core of the universe, in a place where life won't be demolished when they do respawn." Melissa petted the egg gently. "They really are intune with nature, even on a cosmic level that us mages can't fathom."

The memory of Janus finally spoke up. Gemini was wondering when he'd ask the same question she was itching to rip from his mind. "So how do phoenixes hatch? I mean, if it's unlikely for them to hatch in our presence, how does it hatch and allow you to... well."

Janus made an explosion with his hands. Unfortunately, without her glasses, Melissa couldn't see his hands.

"I'm going to assume you're talking about the pyro-portation. Er, that's actually a pending name, but let's just call it that for now."

"Right," Janus nodded. "How does pyro-portation work without eradicating this side of the universe?"

Melissa's amber eyes shone as a wide grin spread across her face. "With pyromancy, silly. You see, as a fire mage, we are trained to sense increases in temperature. That's why these runes on my dress are for. They also detect heat and convert the energy into light. This also helps with negating the explosion but I'm getting a bit ahead of myself."

"Wait, so there's an actual explosion when a phoenix is born?" Fear spilled from Janus that made the memory filter with a tinge of yellow. Flashes of the attack he survived ten years ago flashed in front of Gemini.

"Yes, but the explosion can be negated by causing the heat to compress. This is way harder than it sounds. Imagine trying to compress 40 megatons of explosives that are trying to rip apart the very fabric of the universe."

"I don't even know how much a megaton is!" He joked.

"Exactly!" Melissa paused as the egg on her lap shivered. A jagged line ripped into the shell's exterior. "But that's what I'm doing as I literally capture the heat and fire within my palms."

"That sounds dangerous."

An echo rang out in the memory: And kinda hot.

Gemini snorted.

"But that's the fun part." then the woman shrugged, bobbing her head side to side. "Actually the really fun part is the super expansion that occurs."

"The super what now?"

"It's the part when I'm able to quote unquote teleport." She used air quotes here. Gemini noticed that the younger Melissa had her nails painted a deep green. "Now remember when I told you how heat expands things."

"Very briefly, but yes."

"Good. Now when a phoenix is born, it expands all matter around it. Imagine planets becoming the size of galaxies. And the moon becomes the size of stars. And mages becoming-"

The memory of Janus gasped. "Fucking giants!"

Melissa beamed proudly.

"Wait, so how does this play into your pyro-portation? Are you literally becoming a giantess? Wait, that wouldn't make sense, because you'd always be a giant." Melissa's face turned a shade of pink that releases serotonin into Janus' body. "Unless you somehow manage to implode the heat again after you expand."

Melissa cleared her throat, her fingers fiddling with the bridge of her nose until she realized she lacked glasses. Janus placed them on her face again, resisting the urge to kiss her .

"Not exactly. What I'm doing isn't exactly imploding the phoenix egg, but instead absorbing the blast for a few seconds until I can expand big enough to stand over the spot I want to pyroport to. That's when I shrink myself by reversing the expansion with a bit of thermomancy."

Janus blinked twice. "I have no clue what any of that means. But it sounds cool."

In the present, Janus stared up at the moon, watching the stars. Gemini felt his mind grasping at the straws his lover had fed him as she tried to explain pyroportation. She herself could barely understand it. Aquarius might understand it better, and possibly explain with less scientific jargon so Gemini could understand it. It just sounded like a bunch of nonsense to her.

This is why I stick to magic. It's simple. Tangible. And it's not at all confusing.