Chapter 44

The next few weeks for Corliss passed in a blur and yet she couldn't think of a time when she had so much fun. She missed being in Ayveri, missed being back on the university campus, missed having friends to talk to and hang out with that weren't her brother and sister.

She and Fin were practically joined at the hip whenever they were on campus. Not only because they were partners in their other worlds class, but because they always ended up studying together for their other classes also. Fin was taking one more class than she was, but they always managed to find one another in the library, whether it be in one of the study rooms or at a table between the stacks. He shared her same love of books, so the conversations were endless.

He'd even come over to her apartment to meet Meron and have dinner after hearing her rave about his cooking yet complain about almost everything else about him. Of course, Meron was trying to scare him off, but Fin didn't back down. Luckily, they grew to like each other as the night passed and had even met up just the two of them whenever she was stuck finishing up school work. Even Odanth and Ollyn seemed to like him, though they still kept their distance.

The semester passed far too quickly for Corliss's liking, especially when she wanted to know more and more about other worlds theory. One particular lecture session had her even more curious about her own magic.

"Portals and fading," Professor Ashgar said as soon as she walked into the lecture room. She seemed to have created a habit of entering with flare, which Corliss absolutely loved. "That's our topic for this week. What do we know already?"

"Both require specialized magic only a few have," one student said from the middle of the room. "For fading, you have to be sensitive to dark magic to take advantage of the shadows."

"Correct," she nodded. "I know of one Fae who I've seen do such magic, though have heard rumor of a few others."

A female longingly sighed from the back. "Crown Prince Jai."

Several others laughed as Professor Ashgar smiled and rolled her eyes. "Correct...but please don't drool on your text, Isobel," she told her, earning another round of laughter. "To do such magic, like we stated, one has to be sensitive to dark magic, though they don't have to possess it. Now, what about portals?"

Hesitantly, Corliss raised her hand. "Portals are primary focused on sorcerers and sorceresses...of a specific familial line in Eld. My family, to be exact."

The professor smiled at her and nodded. "Exactly...and I do believe you have the capability of creating such portals."

Corliss's face heated, feeling everyone's stare on her back. "I do, though I haven't tried it in a while. I might be a little rusty on my execution. My grandmother was the one who mastered the talent."

She nodded again, flipping through her instructional text to the appropriate chapter. "The portals you are able to make, though, are only able to take you from one place to another in our own world, correct?"

"Yes, but I hardly doubt my grandmother thought to try it in order to get to another world. I haven't either until this class."

She was met with a few chuckles, even from Fin beside her.

"The portals we're going to be discussing over this next week are a little different than those. These will be natural portals, not ones made."

"Natural?" Fin asked, raising a brow. "Is there such a thing?"

"Is there?" she challenged.

As the conversation went on, Corliss rested her chin in her hand, reading through the chapter while barely listening to the discussion around her. The first sections were about the magic and the structures of the portals themselves, but then it flowed into what the portals would actually do to the flow of space around them. In the author's description of it bending and stretching around said person, Corliss completely agreed. She'd experienced it herself first as a little girl with her grandmother and then herself when she managed to create one of her own.

The natural portals were the same in a way, though no one would know it was there until they were right up close, seeing the distortion in the area where it stood. And when they did get close enough...well, then that person would of course disappear into it.

Disappear.

There was one place where Corliss and almost everyone knew about with unexplained disappearances there were just explained by being killed by the creatures that roamed the forest.

"So, where are a few areas of our world where we know disappearances occur more often than not, where said person is never heard from again?" Professor Ashgar asked just as Corliss looked up. She raised a brow, seeing the spark of knowing in her eyes. "Corliss?"

"The Wilds in Ethran," she said immediately.

"But they've found the bodies of those who disappeared," one male said behind her.

"Not all of them, though," she countered, still looking at the professor. "There are rumors of dark creatures, of course, and the bodies turning up months afterward to confirm their deaths, but what about those who have never been found?"

Professor Ashgar smiled as she walked up to the front of Corliss's table, reaching down to flip to the next page of her text. "Exactly."

Corliss leaned over as everyone else flipped to the same page, looking down at the sketch of an ancient tree and the slight distortion of the space behind it.

"There is rumor that this tree is a guardian of sorts, a marker of a gateway to another world other than our own. No one knows how long it's been there or even if it is there, but no one dares to go in search of it either."

Silence followed as everyone continued to stare at the etching.

"Can anyone think of any other place in our world with a similar history?"

This time, it was Fin who answered. "There's one place in Escarral, actually. In the mountains in Ceron. There's a cave that goes deep into one of the mountains and more than a few people have disappeared when trying to explore, even though there are no underground springs or the like that would swallow them."

Even Professor Ashgar raised a brow as the others around them murmured. "Interesting. I've actually never heard of such a place in Escarral."

Fin smiled. "Good thing you decided to let in a human from the human land into the class, right?"

She returned his smile. "Right."

Even after the lecture ended, Corliss still wanted to learn more. Not just about the Wilds, but also about the cave in Escarral.

"Want to go to the library to see if we can find anything more?" Corliss asked Fin as everyone started packing up their things to leave.

"I wish," he signed, pulling his bag onto his shoulder. "I have a shift at work since we don't have our other lecture today, so I've got to head out."

"Then I guess I'll see you tomorrow, huh?"

His smile was bright as he winked at her. "Tomorrow it is. Tell Meron I say hello, though, since I haven't seen him since last week."

"I will."

"And try not to hit him."

"No promises."

Fin left as Corliss continued packing up, shoving her books and parchment into her bag. When she moved to stand, her ink pen, which she'd forgotten to put inside, rolled off the edge of the table and onto the floor. Bending over to pick it up, she noticed something else. A well-worn book Fin must have forgotten laid just under his chair, front cover open to the title page.

Corliss grabbed it, then looked back toward the open door but she was already alone.

***

So, she might have peeked inside as she strolled through Ayveri heading south. How could she not when the title page itself was interesting enough for her to want to look through the rest of the pages? Because it was written in a language she'd never seen before, though Fin's handwriting as scrawled between the lines in partial translation. In his familiar blocked handwriting, he'd written darkness with a question mark at the end.

She really should have gone to find him at work...but she was going to see him tomorrow, so what was the harm in looking through it herself?

Without even looking up to see where she was going, Corliss flipped through the book, the pages so old she thought they would crumble in her fingers. They didn't, though, and she found out the reason because there was a preservation charm cast on it. Fin had made even more notes throughout it about dark magic and other worlds and even along one etching of a cave right in the middle. Ceron – Escarral was written along the top of the page.

Where in the world would he have found a book like this?

Carefully putting it in her bag, Corliss continued her trek out of Ayveri toward the beach just to the south where she knew she'd find Meron and the dragons. He'd already told her to come if she wanted a break from schoolwork since he planned on giving the dragons their own break from training, too.

It wasn't difficult to find them, not with the excited roars from Odanth and Ollyn and Meron's yelling. It wasn't in anger, but rather in warning of them to be careful. Plus, he was laughing, the sound ringing out and making Corliss smile just to hear it.

The dragons were playing in the surf, their talons digging into the sand before the tide washed the prints away and they disappeared beneath the waves. They were just having fun playing around...and ganging up together on Meron, who was keeping a close eye on the pair.

Corliss lifted a hand to shield her eyes from the sun overhead, her face instantly heating when she saw Meron. He was bare from the waist up, his tunic thrown over his saddle with his boots beside them where a blanket was stretched out on the sand. He only had on his leather riding pants, which were getting wet by the water splashing and would undoubtedly be uncomfortable if he didn't use magic to dry off on their way back home.

Odanth and Ollyn were the first to catch sight of her as she set her bag down beside Meron's, then took off her shoes. Toes digging in the sand, she pulled her hair up in a leather tie as the dragons bounded over to her. They got to her before she could even take two steps, making the ground tremor beneath her feet. She was still in awe of how much they'd grown over those last weeks of being home. Now, they were almost fully grown, though their silver eyes shown bright with excitement just as they had ever since the night they hatched.

"What are you two doing? Terrorizing Meron?" she smiled as they both leaned their heads down to allow her to scratch in the place along their jaws they loved most.

"They've already pushed me in the water twice," Meron called out. "Crazy beasts."

"And that's why they love me most," she crooned, kissing their noses. "He's calling you mean names, isn't he?"

Both of them huffed out a simultaneous breath as spoke curled from their nostrils.

Meron just rolled his eyes, running his fingers through his still damp hair. "How was class? I figured you'd be working on your thesis with Fin?"

"He had to work, so I thought I'd come here to bug you," she grinned. "But class was good."

He sat down on the blanket, leaning back on both hands as he stretched out his legs. Water gleamed off his chest and the thick muscles of his arms...and Corliss had a hard time not staring. If Meron noticed her preoccupation, he didn't say a word. "So, what will I be learning this evening over dinner since you always want to tell me about it?"

Corliss rummaged through her bag, pulling out the book Fin left. "Portals, actually. Both magically made and natural. But there's something else..."

"Portals? Don't you have the magic to make them? I know Bridget doesn't...complains about it all the time, though she loves flying with Chesnan everywhere, but..."

"Yes, I do have portal magic, though I haven't tried it in a very, very long time, but that's not what I was going to tell you about," she said, then handed him the book. "Fin left this. I think it's one of the books he's been using as a reference for our thesis. I've never seen it before, but the spine has the markings from the library, so maybe he just got it? I don't know." She watched as Meron opened to the title page, then pointed at Fin's partial translations. "Look. He's made notes all throughout. And there's even an etching of an ancient guardian tree that's rumored to be in the Wilds...that protects a natural portal to another world."

Meron snorted as he thumbed through the pages. "He can't really know what this says, can he? This is in an ancient Fae language that's not even around anymore. How would he know how to translate it other than finding it in another book?"

As soon as he flipped to the last page, he got his answer. Fin had scrawled a hurried note on the back cover.

Restricted texts. Dewridge's office.

"Huh," Meron said.

"I've seen those texts," Corliss said. "They're behind her desk, though she doesn't even have them locked up. She doesn't have to. Everyone knows not to go in there without permission."

"Guess Fin had another idea, though."

"Wonder what all is there..."

Meron grinned. "Only one way to find out."