Egress

3

Avus sits at his desk starts to sort through all of the papers in front of him. Every surface of his office was covered with piles of papers, all showing complex diagrams. Even his walls were covered with pinned up designs.

 Before long he had cleared off space on his desk and began working on a diagram of a rug. It was intricately drawn with delicate designs and notes such as, 'for stabilization,' and 'to control height'. He becomes totally absorbed in his work, focusing on every detail. A knock on the door goes completely unnoticed. After a moment the door opens and a woman peers into the room. Seeing Avus at his desk she enters and stands in front of him.

"Excuse me," she says, still unnoticed.

Avus finally looks up and blinks.

"Yes?" he asks, still thinking about his work.

"I'm Isa, the new spatial mage. You wanted to meet with me?"

Avus' expression brightens. "Of course!" he exclaims, hurriedly sifting through the papers on his desk. "Do sit down, I have it here somewhere."

Avus continues to shuffle through the papers, disorganizing his neat stacks. "Aha!" He exclaims and holds up a few papers covered in his neat handwriting and diagrams. They depict a pair of boots covered in symbols similar to the ones on the rug he had been working on earlier. He holds them out to Isa.

"I've been working on some transportation charms that are a little more portable than the doors, and I designed these. They are boots that operate on the same principle as the doors. Obviously, they needed some adjustments, but I think they will work."

Avus looked expectantly at Isa. She looks down at the papers in her hands rather doubtfully, then her expression turns thoughtful.

"Do you think it will work?" Avus asks anxiously.

Isa turns through the pages, studying the neat diagrams. "I think they might," she says slowly. "I'll get to work on them. I'll ask Angus to build them and I'll work on the charms." Isa suddenly looks excited. "I really think these could work!" Isa jumps up, still admiring the diagrams and calculating in her head. "I'll let you know how it goes!" she says, with a quick grin at Avus.

Avus grins back "Excellent! Please do!"

Isa rushes out, excited to get to work.

Avus leans back in his chair for a second. He always loves the feeling of creating a successful design. He smiles at Isa's eagerness and then gets back to his work. 

He is once again lost in the intricacies of his design, when someone show up in his doorway. She stands there for a moment, watching Avus sadly, before she sighs and enters his office.

"Avus," she says cautiously, "How are you?" She smiles hopefully when he looks up, but when Avus sees his guest his face turns cold.

"Mangus" he says darkly.

Mangus waits for him to say something more, but he doesn't. They both look at each other for a moment before Mangus breaks the silence.

"I just thought I'd stop in and see how you were," Mangus says gently.

"I wouldn't want to distract you from your very important duties," Avus replies.

"Avus..." Mangus says, taking a step forward.

Avus looks back down at his work. "I'm afraid I'm terribly busy. Do have a good tour, I'm sure that I'm am very honored by your visit, and goodbye."

With that Avus begins to work again, studiously ignoring Mangus. Mangus sighs and stands there for a few seconds. "I'm sorry," she whispers. When there is no response, she turns around and leaves.