“Push here to open!” - said the Lynx pointing at the ring with a claw - “we should do that!”

“But why does it say Alice to wear?” - wondered Tina

They looked at each other, not wiser.

“What if it's a trap?” - said Spartacius pointing towards the ring in Alice's hands.

“A trap?” - asked Alice looking at him.

“Well, we got something from a dark elf! That excludes Cala and White Flower.” -said Spartacius continuing his idea - "Maybe some other prisoner from a nearby place? Who knows how many people have the orcs imprisoned here?"

"But who knows Alice here?" - asked Tina

"Maybe they heard the name?"

Sid shrugged but abstained from voicing his opinion. He only pocked Tina, who had now Spartacius' food-bag for more cookies.

"Where did the dark elf find the strawberries? They do not grow in caverns!" - protested the Lynx.

"Yes and?" - wondered Spartacius - "Maybe it got fed by the orcs?"

"The orcs feeding somebody strawberries!" - exclaimed Tina, unconvinced

"Or maybe it has some food bag similar to mine that's making strawberries? We could have some!"

"No thanks. Smelling those half digested had cut my appetite."

The discussion continued until the Lynx lost his patience:

“We can talk for the next couple of hours, and we will not be wiser, or we can just push it and find out,” - said the Lynx; then, with a shrug and a swift move, he pushed the button.

As the Lynx's claw pressed the button on the ring in Alice's hand, a giant portal opened to the side, swallowing Tina instantly. Sid and Spartacius jumped to the side with Spartacius desperately screaming:

“Tina!!! Tina!!!”

“Oops!” - said the Lynx and jumped inside the portal behind Tina.

Alice's hand holding the ring trembled, but she did not throw it away. They watched each other in silence for a moment.

Alice's face turned white as she spoke towards the portal:

“Everything ok there?”

“Yeah, we are here inside whatever this thing is,” - replied the Lynx from inside the portal - “Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” - replied Alice - “is Tina OK?”

“Yeah. A bit scared but OK.”

“Idiot, you could have killed somebody!” - said Alice looking towards the portal. It was extremely rare for Alice to admonish somebody like that.

"Sorry, I was sure this must be something from White Flower; I thought it would open some small inventory box or a message," - came from inside the portal.

“They could have put a warning message or at least an info that a portal is opening. Where does it lead?” - asked Sid, a bit unhappy that the cookies were gone with Tina, who had fed him continuously the last couple of hours.

The portal was probably not pointing to a faraway zone for somebody to be able to speak through it. The more extended range, the stronger the sound attenuation was, about what the air would allow propagating. For them to be able to speak through, this must have been a very local portal, probably to a hidden room. This was confirmed a moment later by the Lynx.

“Nowhere... This is something like a barn... there is manure on the floor and traces of cows... oh, a letter!”

Alice wondered:

“Looks like a farmer's transport ring?”

“Hey, the portal is closing!” - interrupted Sid the conversation - “Can you get out?”

“The portal is right up above our heads but too high. Can you move it lower?”

Alice shifted the ring carefully in her hand and wondered:

“How? Is it better now?

The portal seemed to be more or less stationary, but The Lynx jumped out of it with Tina in his back just seconds before the portal fizzled and closed.

They looked at each other again. The Lynx let a breath out with the ears flattened on his head:

“The portal ran out of mana. Probably Alice wearing it will charge it again; I assume that's why she was asked to wear it. I still believe it must come from Cala; somehow, I smell it. I cannot explain it truly as it is not a smell.”

“You may be onto something” - nodded Alice, then added - “You said something about a letter? That should clarify it.”

“Yes, Tina has it!”

Tina let herself slip along the Lynx's side.

"Sorry, Tina!" - said the Lynx

She patted his side.

Alice took the letter from her hand, un-scrolled it, and read it aloud:

"Dears,

I am not sure when I'll be able to communicate with you again. When you see the portal opening, please get inside and wait there; it will be my signal to start the spell to retrieve you all.

Love, Cala"

“Shit, should we be inside now?” - said a big-eyed Tina

“I guess not yet; we opened it; it was not opened remotely.” - said the Lynx - “It says Alice should wear it, probably for mana as we assumed. I guess she would be the most efficient mana factory here.”

“No. I would be,” - said Sid, then added - “besides, Is Cala now a dark elf?”

“It says I should wear it, so I'll do that. Maybe it is a mana compatibility issue, or she simply misjudged... No, White Flower would not do that, she knows, so it must be some compatibilty issue.” - said Alice - “From the letter, it is implied the portal would be opened remotely. There is still some other magical inscription on the ring that I cannot translate.”

“Oh yes,” - nodded the Lynx - “it looks like some kind of a spell.”

“True.” - nodded Sid at his turn.

"I don't see anything!" - said Tina looking at the others

“So,” - said Spartacius ignoring Tina - “A dark elf sends us the content of his stomach, including this ring that just happens to have a letter signed Cala... Oh, fuck! I was completely wrong, and you were right, Lynx!”

“What?” - wondered Tina.

Spartacius looked at each other, then lowered his head.

“You look as if someone sunk your boats,” - said the Lynx.

“Where do you have that one?” - asked Spartacius, but as the Lynx shrugged, he watched them, then explained - “This is either a trap by some dark elf who ate strawberries and sacrificed his gut, or Cala has problems joining the world.”

“What do you mean with 'problems joining the world'?” - wondered Tina

Spartacius turned to her:

“Cala is gone. Where did she disappear? Exactly like White Flower before! Look, how does Michael come into this world?”

“It is you!” - explained Tina pushing a finger in his breast - “So what do you want to say?”

Spartacius sighed.

“Look, when Cala was here, she said that we were spawns too, remember? She and me, we are spawns, isn't it? And Dolores would then log out! But the surprise was that Cala did log out, too, with her. That was not expected. How can I explain this... Remember that first time White Flower disappeared, then...”

“She wanted to solve Cala's problem,” - said the Lynx, nodding - “Because Cala's mind was torn when White Flower left with Dolores.”

“Exactly!” - said Spartacius - “When White Flower did that spell to fix Cala's problem, she must have linked Cala to her. It did fix Cala's problem, but she was taken away from here.”

“OK.” - said Alice trying to follow up - “but where is the connection to the dark elf?”

Spartacius turned to her.

“I speak now as Michael. When we come to this world, we come as some kind of ghost, and we take over spawns. We choose our spawns." - he pointed at his chest - "I have been chosen and christened by Michael. OK? He is, in a way, a spirit possessing me. Yes, that's the way to describe it! OK? He comes from time to time here to play, but he needs me to act in this world. He even left an imprint in my mind. OK? When Cala was taken away, Dolores had no spawn to come back to, so she had chosen a new one, a dark elf.”

“Why a dark elf?” - wondered Tina

Spartacius shrugged.

“I don't know. Maybe because they have high magic capabilities?” - he sighed - “If my theory is right, she did not come here because she could not. She knew White Flower's spell, but all she could teleport with the little mana that a new character has was some pieces from her stomach. What is really impressive for a new character. The spell centers around the center of gravity. I don't know how she found that out, but I think she cannot come. I still do not understand why the ring, but probably she thought of a way to pull us away.”

“Hm. This is just a theory,” - said Alice

Spartacius shrugged and nodded:

“Yes. It is the only one I could make until now that makes sense. Or maybe it is a dark elf that wants us all inside that ring to... I don't know... imprison us? We are already in prison, so...”

He shrugged again.

“You may be onto something” - nodded the Lynx - “Maybe only parts of it are true, but..” - he sighed - “I wonder, could she pull the ring away from here the same way as she sent it?”

“Hm. Good question. Probably not the same way, but a different one.” - said Alice

“It needs much more mana to pull the ring away with us inside. Well, we can wait and jump in when the portal opens,” - said Sid

“It cannot open now; the ring has no mana!” - countered Tina.

“True, that's why Alice has to wear it,” - said Spartacius

“And what should I do when this happens? Should I jump inside the portal too, or keep it on my finger?” - wondered Alice

“You should jump inside, too,” - said the Lynx

“But what if we get trapped inside?” - wondered Tina

“I think I saw some levers inside. You can probably control the portal from the inside, too, and open it. We have time to test it... yes, unless the dark-elf Cala calls it before.”