The request to make a gate that could be taken through another was a bit of a challenge, but not one that was insurmountable. There needed to be a way to keep the item as one, while still being able to take it apart or down, so we had to think of ways to go about that. We spent several days bouncing ideas back and forth against each other, to little effect.

The issue came about in the fact that magical items really, really, did not like being added to or broken down after they were made. In many cases it destroyed the item completely, and was a bit of a known issue. Even things like the city wards, or the ones on larger buildings that were added to were done in a simplistic method. A power output and on/off control was put somewhere and then the energy was moved over in an on/off manner, that was it. I'd never personally gotten a close look at the city wards, as they were need-to-know, but I'd wager they were a disaster of overlapping and aggregated items.

We could have possibly scaled them down significantly, but Jason didn't like that, the point was for them to be large. A letter from Mystien himself said that we could if no other method would work, but we were to investigate all other avenues first.

"None of these work," I groaned.

"Hmm, what if we connected all the pieces through that thing you used, the..." He hesitated, the communications had been up until recently absolutely top secret, but after a moment he remembered. "Right, right, the communications things, can we use those? Maybe add them so that the parts are all connected?"

I had to take a moment to think about that one. "Hmm, I don't think that would work quite right. If they're not all together at some point then we might have some real issues should the portal try to activate, it's just not gonna be clean."

We'd played with the idea of having the portal appear in the air, even done a trial. The result was a disastrous failure. Without connecting to a frame it had some odd effects, distorting the space around it in weird ways. It almost reminded me of my first couple of attempts with my spell version, but it faded quicker. It also made the team put that down and step back very carefully. It had even led to some changes in protocol.

"How you think that mage, Ristolian did it?" he asked, it wasn't the first time I'd considered that question.

"I personally think that he knew how to teleport, or just flew them into place. Records on that guy are scarce, but he was a known powerhouse when he was active. There are still records of some of his exploits in the magical schools. Our first dean even knew of him, though not about this." I thought for a moment. "Well, if he knew about teleportation he kept it hidden, but he'd have been able to act against the emperor if he did."

Selene gave a sigh, and reached out for a little paper fan. The room wasn't hot or anything, but she'd taken to playing with it to help her think; much to our irritation. As she snapped the thing open again with a 'crack' she froze and looked at it.

"Got something?" I asked.

"Yeah, maybe I do."

The next week was spent designing, and then making a frankly ugly construction of folding metal. Joints had to be constructed with care, to bend but not break. It wasn't our most lovely work, and was certainly still in the prototype stage, without any real spells in it other than a few testing runes to check if it all connected. The first few had been tiny models that shifted this way and that, before finally locking into a circular formation. Once opened they did need to have pieces that kept them in shape for activation, but that was a rather minor setback.

Magic really sped the whole thing along. We could design then make within hours a small version for trial. The wizards in our group were particularly skilled at molding the pieces with little more than their minds and a blueprint. I could use an array of magically powered tools to achieve a similar result, but they were much better than I was at this.

Instead I'd been adding a few extra safety measures. If the portal couldn't achieve the right shape, or any part of the circuit broke, the whole thing would turn off. It was a small addition, but I wanted to be sure that if something did break, it wouldn't break in a way that killed people. I'd also had to go and check up on the little spatial distortion we'd made; luckily it had quickly dispersed, leaving no detectable issues behind, but I was still checking on it daily.

"So this is it?" Mystien asked when he came to see our prototype.

"Yeah, not pretty, but it should work," Jason answered.

"It may just be the ugliest item I've ever seen." The old man gave it a critical eye. "Does it work?"

"We'll be ready to test tomorrow. We were thinking that we'd take it through a gate somewhere, but we'd need permission for that," I said, leaning over.

"You'll have it, don't need any accidents." Mystien was nothing if not pragmatic. "If it works as desired we'll need a pair, preferably slightly nicer ones, as soon as possible."

"Some kind of rush?" Dras asked.

"Yes, we've gotten approval and you'll be off to install it as soon as possible. The emperor wants to start the expansion process as soon as possible. Ah, but the new hub will be in the capital, not here or in the fortress," he answered.

That was exciting, I'd never been there and would probably have to go at some point, if only for the instillation.

A caravan of men slowly made their way. The merchants of the caravan had fish, dried and salted. These they moved first, selling them for oil, then dried fruit. At one point they picked up a load of fine cloth, only for it to be transferred a few cities further upon their way.

They weren't out to make money. Several of the people here were of course, but that wasn't the main goal. In a number of their trades they in fact took a slight loss, this was unfortunate, but as long as they were trading, it was fine.

There weren't many magic users on board, at least to untrained eyes. A handful of auras were tightly suppressed, mostly from physical types. Similarly, those who looked close would realize that most of these men, even the ones without any magic at all, were rather more fit then your standard caravan trader, loaded out with lean muscle.

Nobody of course would look at the cart driver of the third cart with the same thoughts in mind. He was an older man whose wrinkles formed around a long face, slitted eyes and a look that made others both mistrust, and slightly fear him. He had the look of a viper on the hunt, one not to be denied.

It would be quite the trip, and the man looked most displeased to make it; after all, the city of Linden was far from the frozen north. What was one to do when their prince needed results though, other than to go themselves?