A couple of older gentlemen walked down the Florida beach dressed in Master Runecrafter robes that befit their high rank in the union. The robes were charcoal in color with a myriad of Runes that glowed in different hues upon the fabric. The Runes provided powerful protection, and took most of their lives to create. It was late in the day and the sun was setting on the Gulf of Mexico. The water was so calm that the sun looked like it was setting behind a giant piece of glass. There was a brilliant reflection of it's rainbow colors. The incredible site caught Jowan's attention, and he sighed. With a little awe in his voice he said,"Will you look at that." Then he started to walk toward the water. He kept on walking until he was thirty to forty feet away from shore... on the surface of the water. His robe was mere inches away from getting wet.
The other Master Runecrafter (Shan) was busy drawing a glyph in the sand. When he finished it glowed for a second and then faded. Satisfied with his work he turned to admire the sunset . "That's why I assigned us to the west coast. We have to help with Glyph refresh duty, but there's no reason why we can't enjoy a good sunset."
The two men took in the view for a few moments until Jowan spoke up.
"Shan, the barrier has been in place for three months now. We have no way of knowing if the government is still planning to carry through with the portal project. I know we had to take drastic steps to keep the crystallized plutonium out of the president's hands, and isolating Florida from the rest of the country during our convention at Disney World was sheer genius, but we all thought this would have ended after a couple of days. I can't believe the rest of the country still doesn't miss the state."
"Yes, my friend, I agree, we must find a way to move forward. We all thought that once we brought to light the portal project, and then demonstrated how bad we thought the idea was by isolating an entire state from the country, that that stubborn man of a President might give up on the project. He knows how dangerous it is; he knows how many of us died the last time we opened it. We barely got the portal closed before whatever those tentacles were attached to got through. Yet he wanted us to keep on trying, and for what? A quick, convenient form of earth bound travel." With each sentence, Shan sounded angrier and angrier. He paused, spread his arms out wide, and took three steps down the beach. With much sarcasm he said, "Step through a portal in New York and step out of one in Paris. New York to Paris in 3 easy steps."
Rather sullenly Jowan said, "It was a good idea, but we did waste a few billion dollars, and..."
Shan cut him off before Jowan could go down the list of failures associated with the project.
"You need not remind me of that, Jowan. I was there each and every time we opened the portal. Just because we proposed what turned out to be an unworkable idea does not give the President permission to risk the lives of thousands perhaps even millions of people. The last time we opened that damned portal that thing killed seventy five people within thirty seconds, almost the entire team. All those lives gone without it even getting all the way through the portal, I can't imagine how many would have died if we had not managed to close it. Besides, look at how much money the military has wasted on bad ideas, compared to us." Shan looked down. "We're but a grain of sand on the beach. No, it is not about the money. The man is insane. There is no other explanation."
Still sounding sullen Jowan said, "Insane and powerful. That is a very dangerous combination. What if he went insane from playing with forbidden magic? He wouldn't have any problem then using charms to keep everyone doing exactly what he wants."
Sounding like he was trying to persuade Jowan again Shan said "What if something did escape during our first tests? We held that portal open over twenty times, for two or three seconds each time something sentient could have slipped thru. We had no idea we were even opening a door to another dimension, until those fucking tentacles burst thru, and started killing everyone. Who knows what else could have snuck thru earlier? Hell we weren't even scanning for anything to come out. We were just trying to connect two wormhole generators to each other. I didn't realize there was another dimension in the way. As crazy as it sounds I still think the President is being controlled by something that came through the portal. He got awfully obsessive with our progress after his visit. How the hell could we know what form an inter-dimensional sentient being could take, or what their capabilities would be. Nobody expected those tentacles to come shooting out of that small portal we opened. I'd hate to see what would have come out if we'd opened it up larger.
