Dee watched as Moirai repeatedly opened a portal with her psionic powers. The portal had not changed from the other times Dee had seen it before. It was a circular opening in space that looked like the space around it was struggling to close with all the sparks running around the edges. Moirai was explaining the process at the same time, trying to teach Dee to do the same. This was Dee’s reward for killing the feral dragon during her little hunt. Moirai didn’t bother mentioning that she would’ve taught this to Dee anyway at some point.

“You need to imagine the space in front of you and the desired destination existing in the same place, and then punch a hole though. Making the hole is not the hard part, keeping it open is. This is a very rough application psionic power to bend the laws of space, and the space tries to rectify the anomaly as soon as possible. You can see the erosion of the portal on the edges. The further away the destination and the less you know about the destination the harder it is to keep the portal open. On the upside, unlike mages, we don’t have to be familiar with our destination, but we have to be careful not to open the portal inside a mountain or something.” Moirai explained with a lecturing tone. This was probably the hardest to learn out of all her abilities, partially because there was no way to give a completely clear explanation. The skill worked half on instinct.

“What happens when you do open a portal inside a mountain, or even a living being?” Dee asked. Needless to say she was already thinking that she might want to open a portal inside certain people to tear them apart.

“Using force control like this is not an exact science, so the result may vary. Your way of creating portals will not be exactly the same as mine, as you will imagine the process a little different. For me the portal won’t open and there will be a backlash of power as the skill fails. I won’t be able to create another portal for a while afterwards. My mentor could make the portal appear if the object in the way was inanimate, though of course you wouldn’t be able to go though. Living beings will naturally resist such a drastic change inside themselves even without knowing something like this happened. If my mentor accidentally opened a portal inside a rank one person, then tough luck to the poor bastard, but if she tried to open one inside a being with actual power, then the portal would not open and then the backlash happened.” Moirai said with a warning tone.

“I guess that explains why portals usually have their own dedicated spots for opening, even when mages create them.” Dee commented with a shiver. That would not be a nice way to go. Still might be semi-useful as a weapon.

“Anyway, if you can calculate the location of the target in relation to yourself, then it becomes much easier to both open and maintain a portal, so knowledge of the destination or great calculative abilities are useful for us too. Just not something mandatory, unlike for the mages. Oh, there’s another thing. You’re already aware that there’s a barrier around this place stopping portals from forming. There are many such methods to stop portals from working. The most effective ones stop any spatial anomalies like portals from forming completely, something commonly deployed during wars. A more wicked method is to twist all spatial disturbances, so that they end up in a different place. Some communities like to have any portals open straight into places full of traps, so do be careful about that. The shield around this place is powerful against tampering but very basic in the sense that it simply prevents any portal that would go through the shield. Something like opening a portal also makes a pretty big disturbance so you will announce your presence to everyone. I know how much you like your stealth, so I should emphasize this. There are no stealthy portals.” Moirai looked sternly at Dee while giving the warning.

Next it was time for Dee to try to create a portal of her own. Her first attempts were complete failures as was expected. In fact it took her three weeks until she made any progress. She felt that there was something wrong with how she was trying to create the portals. It was as if Moirai’s method was great for the Meilin psion, but somehow faulty for Dee. She tried many different ways to make Moirai’s method to work, but finally gave up on the idea of bringing two places together to form the portal, her power simply didn’t work that way.

Instead she started to form an alternate path between the two places. The basic idea was that this alternate path would still be much shorter and faster. As soon as she thought of this her progress became much faster. She still didn’t manage to make a portal further than between her hands by using all her strength, but at least she had made one. It seemed that there was still something wrong with her way of doing things. She was still stuck with the idea of creating a path through space between the two points. This basic idea seemed wrong somehow.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t try to make a direct path through space between the points. Maybe the path has to go elsewhere? Maybe the fastest path between two points in this case isn’t a straight line.’ Dee thought to herself during one of her lessons with Moirai. Her teacher was dealing with some of her of research while Dee was doing experiments, staying available for questions. That had often been the way their lessons went. Moirai gave her the basic outline and answered questions while Dee found her own way of doing things.

Instead of strictly controlling her power, Dee let the power itself find the best way between points. Her goal was to make a portal to the other side of the volcano caldera they were in. Suddenly something snapped into place and a portal came into existence in front of her. She felt that the destination was not quite where she had aimed, but that this was the shortest distance between points that she could create a portal with this method. A minimum distance in other words.

“Uh, master, I think I did something.” Dee called for Moirai. Even Dee’s failed experiments created spatial disturbances, so Moirai had not felt the difference between a failed and a successful attempt. In fact the successful attempt had been more subtle that the bungled up attempts, although still easily noticeable.

The other woman looked up and saw the portal in front of Dee. At first she was glad that her disciple had succeeded, but there was something strange about the portal. For one, it wasn’t trying to close. There were no fiery edges or sparks and no erosion of space, simply an opening in space barely visible from where she was sitting. She walked up to the portal without saying anything and looked inside. It was like she was looking at the vast emptiness of space, except it wasn’t entirely black. It had a dark silvery hue with touches of weird purplish and white strands of light floating everywhere.

“Where exactly did you open a portal to?” Moirai asked in shock. She was afraid that all the air would suddenly explosively flow though the portal into the empty looking weird space, but nothing like that happened.

“I don’t think that is the destination.” Dee commented. She pointed at another opening inside the weird space about a hundred mel away from where this opening was. “That’s the destination. This is the space in between.”

“In between? You didn’t make a portal directly to your destination?” Moirai asked, suddenly realizing the implications.

“No, that didn’t seem to work for me for some reason. I had to find another path.” Dee explained her problem.

“So what’s that space in between then?” Moirai asked the obvious question. “And more importantly, is it dangerous?”

Dee considered for a while. She had a feeling that the weird space wasn’t exactly safe, but it wasn’t immediately dangerous either. She got a feeling like she was looking at the sea. Just going in wasn’t dangerous, but that didn’t mean there were no dangerous creatures within, and that you couldn’t drown if you weren’t’ careful. “Only one way to find out. Pull me back if it looks like things are going bad.” Dee yelled and suddenly leaped into the emptiness beyond the portal.

She had hoped that her momentum would take her to the other portal even if there were no footholds in the empty space, but her movement stopped immediately as she crossed the threshold as if she had no momentum at all. There was no jarring stop like hitting a wall, it was just like she hadn’t leaped at all and was just…floating there. She tried taking steps and even swimming forwards, but got nowhere. Probably even looked foolish while trying.

She had another problem. She had taken a deep breath before leaping in, but her breath would run out eventually. She had to test if it was possible to breathe here for future reference. She let the air out, not even feeling it go into the emptiness, and tried taking a small breath. Moirai could see the shocked look on Dee’s face from the outside and was prepared to pull her out, but Dee didn’t look distraught or struggling.

“This feels…different.” Dee said, her voice easily traveling to Moirai.

“What?” The Meilin asked, suddenly curious and no longer worried.

“You can breathe but…it’s like my lungs are eating air instead of really breathing. It’s hard to explain. It’s not a bad feeling, just different.” Dee tied putting her feelings to words.

“Start moving!” Moirai started encouraging, her scientific curiosity now suddenly piqued.

“Haven’t you noticed me flopping around like a fish?! I’m trying. I want to go there but I just c…” Dee’s words were cut off suddenly ask she started to rapidly move towards the other portal. “Oh. That’s how it works.” Dee said in a complete deadpan voice.

“What? Tell me!” Moirai demanded, suddenly sounding as childish as her appearance.

“Yeah, I’m leaving that for you to figure out for yourself.” Dee continued her completely emotionless voice, before mumbling to herself. “Stupid bloody space making me feel stupid.”

It took Dee only a few seconds to reach her destination. She looked though the other portal, before turning and yelling back to Moirai. “Alright, it’s safe! You can come too.”

Moirai had noted the whole process that Dee had gone through to move, and knew there was a trick to it. It took her all of a second to figure out you just had to think about moving and it happened. She had a cheeky grin as she got to Dee’s side. “Well that wasn’t so hard.”

“You can laugh now, but what if I told you it took you longer to get here than it took for me?” Dee had a smirk of her own.

“So what?” Moirai asked suddenly wary.

“Weeeell, since the whole movement is done mentally, you can figure out on your own why someone might move slower than others.” Dee teased a little.

Moirai frowned before realization hit her. “You’re telling me the speed of movement there is dependent on you mental ability? You calling me dumb, oh disciple of mine?” Her eyes narrowed dangerously.

“Where are we anyway?” Dee asked, changing the subject. This place was not on the volcano anymore, that much was clear.

Moirai looked around, before noticing the familiar looking mountains in the distance. She knew them because she had seen them from the volcano during a clear day. She also knew the volcano would be in that same direction, but it was hidden by the horizon. “You couldn’t have made a shorter trip for us?” Moirai asked a little shocked, while pointing out the mountains.

“I’m pretty sure that’s the shortest distance I can make the portal. What’s that, about a thousand kilomels from the volcano?” Dee asked, also recognizing the mountains barely peeking over the horizon. It helped that they were standing on the side of another mountain as well, otherwise the horizon would have hidden the those mountains from their sight as well. The whole vicinity of the volcano was dotted with mountains.

“At least. Hard to judge.” The only reason they could even see that far was that their bodies and by extension their eyes were enhanced by their power and they were both from races with great eyesight. “What I’m more interested in is how you managed to pierce the shield protecting the volcano.”

Dee thought for a moment. “I think it’s because we're not actually going through the shield, but around it in a way. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to open the portal if the shield prevented spatial disturbances within the shield from forming.”

“Can you make one back?” Moirai asked. “I can’t actually go through the shield myself, even by foot. Only reason we got out last time was because Razark opened the way.” The portal they had used to get here had closed once they had stepped through.

“I’m not sure. I don’t think my portals are as precise as yours. Let me try.” Dee replied and focused. She could feel that somehow the weird path they had taken had certain amount of control over the destination. Dee realized that the portal would never fail because of opening inside something, not because it wasn’t physically possible, but because the mysterious space in between would not allow that to happen.

Luckily for the two, Dee successfully created a path back. It wasn’t exactly where Dee had wanted to place the end point, but it was close enough. She had a hunch though that the further away she made the portal, the more the endpoint would veer from target. Maybe she could improve with practice?

“So we still don’t know what that space in between is.” Moirai commented.

“I have a hunch.” Dee suddenly said. She had learned a bit more about the weird space after the second time opening the portal. “I’m fairly sure that’s another plane.”

“Like the elemental planes?” Moirai asked with a surprise.

“A little bit like that, but not quite. I get the feeling that that’s the place where you go when you aren’t anywhere else. It’s a bit hard to explain.” Dee struggled with her words, because the concept was so foreign to her.

“Now that you mention it, I think I’ve heard of something like that before.” Moirai’s expression became solemn. “There’s an old theory. Once, before we created the gates that take us between worlds, there was another way to travel between worlds and planes. It could take you anywhere, but it might take you forever to get to your destination. You wouldn’t age during the trip though. The other path of travel was called the Astral Plane or the Endless Astral Sea. The gates made that method of travel obsolete eons ago, but some theories still exist. This is just a guess though. I’m not exactly an expert on the subject. Just something I read in passing.”

“The Astral Plane, huh?” Dee mused to herself. It seemed she had another matter to research when she went back to civilization. Moirai would probably enjoy running a few tests with her until then as well.

---------------

Shunkaha was enjoying the evening with his scout buddies. They were spending the evening in a popular drinking hole founded by one of the retired dwarven scouts. The bar was located at the central gathering place for the scouts. The scouts didn’t have their own headquarters per se because most of the time they were either on missions or scattered among the other groups of the order. However, they did have an area where they gathered equipment and craftsmen that worked for them, as well as a place where they could all relax without being bothered by the rest of the order.

The scouts tended to be a bit of an insular bunch. The other scouts were like a family to them, while they mostly looked down on and barely tolerated the rest of the templar and paladins. This was a feeling of unity born from facing death and adversity together. This unity created a bond of trust that simply didn’t extend to people outside the group, not even to your real family. The men and women here had to give each other their best every time without an agenda, because otherwise they ended up dead. It was not the type of trust that could simply be given freely due to familial or friendly bonds.

“Brothers for a day, brothers for life” didn’t signify just that once you were accepted as a scout you would always be a scout. It also signified the bond of trust that held them together. Once that trust was earned, it was not something that would be easily lost or broken. There had of course been one or two occasions were a member of the scouts had chosen a path of betrayal, but the whole group had hunted those people down and made an example of them in front of all the gathered scouts to show what happened to traitors. On the flip side the scouts would always go above and beyond for their brothers and sisters.

Shunkaha had earned his place among the scouts during the last three years, becoming a full brother. It also didn’t hurt that he was one of the stronger members of the already elite group. This was partially due to his constant training, but it was also because he had gained an important Authority last year that made his power increase explosively. His friends thought Shunkaha had gained the Hero Authority named Silver Fang that was famously passed down in his clan, but they were wrong. The Authority was something greater.

With his power he could take up many dangerous missions and he had completed them with admirable speed and efficiency. That had gotten him noticed and had earned him respect. His charismatic personality had earned him friends and allies. Even the older scouts appreciated his company and would often drink with him in this bar visited solely by other scouts. There was another reason why Shunkaha enjoyed the place aside from the company.

“Hey Silver Wolf! Isn’t it time you sing us another song?” One of the other patrons called out, using Shunkaha’s nickname.

Shunkaha thought the nickname a little boring considering the color of the fur found on his body and his heritage, but it could be worse. Couple of his friends had gotten their names due to the biggest or funniest mistakes they made. “Sure. What would you like to hear this time?” Shunkaha rather enjoyed performing and singing. It was a natural outlet for his charisma, and he did enjoy the attention.

“Sing the love song! I always enjoy hearing about your little sweetheart!” Another patron yelled, getting support from the others. That song was always popular, partly because how easy it was to sing along to.

Shunkaha gave a secretive smile. There was a joke only he understood hidden in the song. One of the conditions for him being granted the Authority had been that he would be engaged to one of the high ranking female wolf werebeasts of an allied tribe. It hadn’t been just for diplomacy, as one of the conditions for gaining the Authority was to have such bonds. Shunkaha would have preferred another person to be present during the ceremony to fulfil that role, but he had not seen that person for over three years.

Everyone assumed that the song he was about to sing was about his fiancée but that was not true. It secretly described the vixen that radiated danger and had stolen his heart. Even his fiancée had thought the song was about her and thought it to be an expression of love. Shunkaha didn’t have the heart to correct that mistaken idea. The girl was crazy about him, even though he barely gave her any attention. She had even followed him into the scouts, now doing her first year among them.

“Tell me, I guess that cupid was in disguise,

That day you walked in and changed my life,

I think it’s amazing

The way that love can set you free.

So now I walk in the midday sun

I never thought that my savior would come

I think it’s amazing

I think you’re amazing.”

The crowd had started becoming rowdy with people singing along and clapping to the rhythm. Several of the other scouts had picked up instruments and were playing along with the rather simple but captivating tune. Suddenly the revelry was dampened as the doors opened and two scouts walked in. There were two reasons the mood had suddenly taken a weird turn. While both of the newcomers were clothed in the standard black leather armor and cloak of the scouts, no one here was stupid enough to think the newcomers were standard scouts.

The taller obviously female scout wore the dark cloth covering her face that hid any identifiable features. Not common among the scout community as they usually didn’t hide themselves from each other, but not something too strange either. What was weird was that no one could feel her level of power, yet she radiated strength and danger like a bared blade ready to take the lives of anyone foolish enough to stand in her way. They were all quite certain she could kill every single scout here without breaking a sweat.

The bigger surprise was the slightly shorter male that had his handsome face bared. The scout uniforms had no signs of rank in case they were captured by the enemy. However, every scout here recognized the face of that Alpyran man as Razark, one of the Blades of the order and the true leader of all the scouts, even ahead of the grandmaster of the order.

The dwarven bartender came out from behind the bar with a wide grin on his face. “Razark you old goat! Glad to see you back!”

“Brann you old drunk!” Razark replied with a grin and squeezed the offered hand of the much shorter dwarf with quite a bit of force. He also looked around. “Don’t mind me and continue. You seemed to have a good mood going. Don’t let me interrupt. In this bar we are all equal.”

Unlike all the others, Shunkaha had paid no attention to the man and had his eyes locked on the woman instead. To be precise, he had his eyes locked on the woman’s hips which he would be able to identify anywhere. They had been a big part of his dreams since the two had met. “Darling?” He asked in a quiet voice.

A familiar voice replied to him, while she pulled down the mask that had hidden the foxlike features. “Who are you calling darling?” The white furred kitsune grinned. “I seem to recall we never did go on that date you kept asking for.”