The Lost Crown

Doorways

Walliam wore a brown robe to dinner.  He felt odd when he put it on.  Sidney had brought him a few robes to try on so they could figure out his size.  He left one, that was slightly too big for him, to wear to dinner.

The dining room was at the back of the Chapter House and it overlooked a garden.  Walliam noticed that the furniture was very ornate and old.  The plates and the silverware all were old, and looked like they were made out of silver.  He felt out of place and tried to get himself to relax as he listened to the other men talk.  Snippert and Planchiko sat at the end of the table, to Walliam’s left, and Mentathian sat at the other end of the table, on his right.

“I told Walliam I would show him what a doorway is when we got here,” Planchiko said to Snippert.  “After dinner, over port.  We can show him how the hidden world looks here at Sundjahar House.”

Snippert turned and gave Walliam a smile.  “Of course.  Have you been in the hidden world since your dream, young man?” he asked.

Walliam shook his head.  “Only that one time, sir.”

Snippert nodded.  “Well, we will show you.  Master Mentathian, will you join us?”

The man gave Snippert a blank look.  “I have reading to do, master Snippert.  And I sail in the morning so I need to make sure I have everything packed.”  He glanced at Walliam with the same blank look and went back to his meal.

Planchiko and Snippert spoke of their travels for the rest of the meal.  Planchiko had been on the road for half a year.  He had traveled around the Kingdom, visiting the seven provinces.  He was seeking pupils for the academy, and Walliam was the only one he had found.

“I fear we’re dying out,” Snippert remarked.  “There are too few of us these days.”

Walliam noticed that this had drawn the attention of the silent Magian, Mentathian.  He watched Snippert and Planchiko have their conversation, but said nothing.

“We are dying out, Snippert,” Planchiko said.  “But it’s happened before.  Remember, three hundred years ago there were only five of us.  Ten years later our numbers had grown to nearly 30.  We have these fluctuations.  I don’t think the academy will every have more than a dozen students.”

“What do you think it is?” Snippert asked.

Planchiko shrugged.  “The hidden world is a balancing mechanism, as we know.  So perhaps there is peace and prosperity at hand and mortals have no need of us in the future.”

Mentathian made a sound like a harrumph and looked down at his nearly empty plate.  He set his fork and napkin down and rose.  He bowed towards the other end of the table.  “Gentlemen, I leave you to it.”  He turned and left.

Walliam looked at Planchiko who was finishing his meal as well and then at Snippert, who was looking at the door Mentathian had gone through.  Snippert looked at the door for a long moment and then shrugged his shoulders.

The drawing room was as well furnished as the dining room, Walliam noticed.  Heavy velvet drapes hung at the tall windows, and Snippert pored port from a thick crystal decanter that sat on a polished teak bar.  The decanter was large, and had a floral design etched into it.  The port was a dark purple color, almost black.  Walliam was surprised when Planchiko handed him a glass.  He was used to having a small glass of sherry at mid-winter’s night, but never at other times of the year, or this much.  There were more than two fingers of port in the heavy crystal glass.

They clinked their glasses together.  “Annapraxsis give us wisdom,” Snippert said as they took a sip.

“Now, laddie, there are a few ways of entering the unseen world,” Planchiko said.  “Sometimes it happens in dreams, as you experienced.  There are cabinets that have doorways in them tied to certain places.  We have a few of them here, in the library.  In both of those instances a person doesn’t need to use the power to move between this world and the unseen one.  Magians enter the unseen world is by making a doorway between the worlds.  Beginners actually trace the doorway in the air, or against a wall.  Sometimes it helps a beginner to do it over an actual door or archway.  For some reason this helps the person be able to create the opening with his mind.  And that’s what you are doing, basically.  You are making a doorway that opens into the unseen world.  You have to see it in your mind, and project it into the air, or against the wall.  I’ll make one for us in the air here, in front of me.”