Chapter 5

As I dust myself up, I look behind and see the tactical team approaching the now dead Barghast. As the portal closes I warn them, “Don’t touch it, it’s tainted with outsider magic.” The team stops advancing and take a few steps back, two of the members put their hands inside their vests, probably checking if they have their charms with them.

A woman wearing a dark blue robe and a man wearing a verdant green one rushes forward and stars drawing a circle around the body with pieces of chalk. Once they finish it, I can feel a magical barrier raising around the creature.

As I hear the team’s captain calling someone for a clean up crew, I noticed the blue robed wizard walking in my direction. She is 1,70 meters tall, give or take, looks to be in her 50’s, has dark hair with white strands and grey eyes. “What have you done this time Captain Dagworth?” She asks me. “You know to not allow monster cross the gates, especially tainted ones”.

“Greetings Keeper Terese, you look lovely today.” I give her my best smile. She scowls at me. “Everytime I wonder why I keep going outside and risking my life against monsters, wild magic surges and the dangerous pathways, I remember that it’s all worth because I know you will be here to welcome us with a smile.” My voice goes from friendly at the start to acidic when I finish. If it’s not obvious already, the keeper and I aren’t on the best terms...

“That is enough” the man in green robe interrupt us. “What happened Artharian? This was a safe pathway.” He is at least 1,90 tall, has light blond hair starting to go grey and deep green eyes.

“Emphasis on “was” Keeper Gustaff. There is now a new rift to another plane close to the stone circle. It’s leaking magic into it, and corrupting whatever creatures still lives there.” I answer him and keep talking. “And it works pretty fast since it wasn’t there when we crossed in our way out. Even with the time dilation, it couldn’t have been there an entire week.”

Keeper Gustaff face darkens as he realizes what that means, abandoning the use of this pathway.

“Now if you excuse, me and my team still need to go through decontamination and hand our reports. I’m sure the commander will brief you on what happened once he finish with it. If he decides you need to know.

Keeper Terese scowls deepens, but Keeper Gustaff put a hand on her shoulder and gesture for us to go.

I gather my team, who were standing to the side, doing their best to avoid grabbing attention. Damm cowards, not coming to their captain rescue, what happened to the all for onel, hanging together, and there is no I on team? I guess not everyone is crazy enough to antagonize the Gatekeepers..

The portal room is a round room the size of a field of indoor soccer. There is only one exit, and the entire walls and even the ceiling is covered with intricate runes and magical scripts. There are 7 big magical crystals powering it, six of those are constantly refueled with magic direct from both courts, three by each obviously, because you know, sidhe, balance, chicken. The last one is powered from the council hall on Net town.

The ground contains dozens of magic circles, each opening to a different remaining pathway on the Fae realm.

There are also seven tactical teams spread on the hall and two fae enforces on the entrance, all of those teams are composed 5 people wearing enchanted tactical gear and carrying automatic weapons full of clips with steel bullets engraved with runes whose function is to help break through magic defences. The enforces are usually Sidhe nobility and always strong enough to deal with anything that could come out of the portals. At least so far. Plus the two gatekeepers that are the two greatest experts on the pathways alive. They decide when a gateway is safe, the hours when the remains of the Fae are aligned with us and million other calculations needed to safely operate the hall. It really is complicated, but both being master diviners help.

This hall if one of the greatest magical feats ever created, and probably the solo reason we, the Fae and us mortals, are managing to survive and even prosper to an extent.

We head for the exit and as we pass the doorways I nod to the enforcers, the lady from winter gives me a predatory smile, it’s enough to give me a chill on the back of my neck, even knowing it’s all pretense, she wouldn’t risk touching me. A perk of being the Queen pet dog. The one guy from summer totally ignores me. Also a perk of being the Queen pet dog.

We move through a small corridor until we reach an antechamber. Magical glyphs lights the room. We step forward and place our hands on small pedestals spread through it. I feel it draining some of my magic as it activate the glyphs on the room. I feel a small pressure as magic scans me, for lack of a better world. A small blue faery fire ignites on my staff where it connected with the Bhargast and I noticed that the same happened to Johnson hammer. It burns for a few seconds before going out. The staff is undamaged and the lights on the room dimms as the decontamination is finished.

The door glass ahead of us that was locked opens and the two guards on the other side stand to the side so we can pass. One of them nods to me “Welcome back Captain”. he says and I nod back as we pass. The small corridor leads us to a set of open doors of reinforced steel that leads to the Expeditionary Forces headquarter plaza. The plaza is surrounded by 4 buildings, command center, barracks, portal hall and the frankenstein building. Well it’s called multi-purpose center, since we lack space for more buildings, everything is done there, training, research, testing.. I think the frankenstein building sounds cooler, but I was vetoed when I suggested it.

“Everyone write your reports and go take some rest, we should have 2 or 3 days off. I will debrief the commander”. I say as we head to the command center. I think the command center used to be a city hall, the main entrance opens up in a hall, with many side rooms and a corridor at the back that leads to the rest of the building. The team splits going for the siderooms to write their own reports. Pyralis heads to one that where a young woman with a notepad is waiting for her. There is another room with a clerk, and the other are empty.

This is necessary because the Sidhe don’t write things down. You see, words have power, even more for the sidhe. They don’t lie, and are bound by any promise they make. So idea of written words that lack all the nuances of speech and can be interpreted wrong or as a lie out of the context they are spoken is alien to them, almost anathema. So we have clerks to write down their reports..

I head to the service desk, identify myself and then ask to talk to the commander. The clerk tells me that the commander is busy in a meeting and I would have to wait for a while. I sigh and nods. Then walking around him I go the corridor, he follow me with his eyes to see if what I’m doing, worried I might just barge on the commander. But I pass the commander doors and go for the bank. Well, it has another name, but everyone refers it as the bank. As I open the door I can feel the magic humming on the room. Inside I’m met with two figures sitting on two diminutive desks and an big open safe on the back wall, I can see dozens of magic crystals stacked on the safe. The two fae raise their eyes to me and stand as soon as they recognized me. Both stand up, and both barely reach my waist. They looked somewhat the same for me, but don’t tell them that, it will get them mad. The dwarf and the spriggan both stared at me. Their eyes full of glee. I smile while I remove the crystals containers from my backpack. They are fidgeting on the spot waiting for me to give them the crystals. When I remove the smaller crystal that powered the safe house their faces darken. They understand immediately that it means, that will be no more crystals coming from that source. I handle them the crystals, sign the correct forms and leave them without saying a word.

They aren’t really the talkative kind, and both dwarves and spriggan takes offence easily, real pain in the ass, but their love for treasure makes them wonderful accountants and guards for the magic reserve of the headquarts. So, I developed this silent relationship with them. And it’s been working wonderfull for all of us. Especially because I only make deposits, if I ever need to withdraw some crystal, I’m sure I would get the stink eye. But that is the commander problem.

I get back to the hall and sit on one of the chairs waiting for the commander to finish her business. A few minutes passes and I’m almost dozing off when Johnson comes talk to me. I blame it on being tired and distracted due to everything that happened. When he initially started talking it took me a while to realize what he was saying, and then I was too late to stop it.