“So, where are we going?” Steve asked Nadine. It was the following day, and he, Nadine, and his dad were all crammed into a taxi.

Nadine grinned mischievously before forgoing using voice commands and simply inputting the location directly into the onboard computer. Modern taxis didn’t have drivers, since they were self-driving, so the computer took care of both navigation and payment. After she finished and pressed the ‘Go’ button, the taxi began moving.

“I still can’t believe you talked me into this,” Steve’s father, Eric, said, checking his portable police scanner for updates. “If it’s a disease that’s incurable, why are we bringing it here? Don’t you watch movies?”

“I stream them during class…” Steve told him, making Nadine giggle.

“All right wise guy, enough,” Eric smiled. They both knew that it was impossible to do that without proper authority. Well, it wasn’t impossible, but it was still pretty difficult if you didn’t know what you were doing. “So these magicians that are coming through; who are they? Is it going to be that princess girl you two go on about?”

“I don’t think so,” said Nadine. “I think she’s had enough of Industria for the time being.”

“Why, has she been back since New York?” Steve said suddenly.

“That’s what I was talking about,” Nadine clarified. “That experience rattled her a lot, so I don’t think she’ll come back willingly for a long while.”

“Well, the fact she’s willing to ask us for help to begin with is an improvement,” Steve said. “When I first met, she looked ready to kill me simply because I was from Earth.”

“It was that bad?” Eric asked. “What happened?”

“Some Industrians invaded the Palace when she was seven and murdered her mother,” Nadine replied sadly. “I believe you would call them a ‘commando team.’ You know, with one specific target and the ‘get in-kill them-get out’ mentality.”

“You mean like Rangers or SEALS?” Eric clarified.

“Yeah, from what I heard,” said Steve. “I wonder who they were working for, though. No one here uses magic, so why would there be a commando squad with the ability to go to Marisia? And why would they know about it?”

Eric took a moment to compose his thoughts, which was odd for him. “You’ve got me,” he said eventually, admitting defeat.

“Wow, not even you know anything?” Nadine said, surprised.

“I’m a cop; I don’t deal with the military,” he replied, eyeing her. “Remind me again, what’s your relation to this Princess Rachel?”

“Oh, our mothers used to be friends,” Nadine said immediately. “They were inseparable when I was younger. Then the Queen was murdered, and Mother took her into our family. Then she left to go hide the Queen’s Staff so the Emperor wouldn’t ever get it. The thing is…she never came back. Father spent a small fortune trying to find her, but it’s like she just disappeared.”

She looked very miserable, so Steve decided to try and cheer her up. “She’s not here on Earth, you don’t think?” Steve broke in, an idea popping into his head.

Nadine was quite intrigued by that suggestion. “It could be possible, I suppose. If she was here, though, she wouldn’t be quiet about it. She was always one to get her hands dirty and do things herself. When she was younger, she was one of the fiercest warriors in the land. That’s the main reason she and Queen Rebecca were such good friends. When she was younger she was what you would call a ‘tomboy’ while the Queen was more of the so-called ‘girly-girl.’ The opposite of Rachel and me, I guess. I’m the more outgoing and fashionable one while she’s the quiet one who studies all the time.”

“If you remember what she looks like, I could sit you down with a sketch artist,” Eric suggested. “Then we could distribute the picture around to see if anyone recognizes her, on the slight chance she really is here.”

“I appreciate that,” Nadine told him, looking grateful, “but chances are if you did that, you’d draw the attention of whoever attacked us all those years ago. If they knew Queen Rebecca, then most likely they knew my mother as well. So unless we know for sure that she’s here, I’d rather not do that. I hope you understand.”

“Of course,” Eric agreed. “I don’t mean to endanger you or anything. I could ask around through non-official channels, however. Or maybe put it on an imageboard on the Internet somewhere so they can’t track us down.”

Nadine still looked hesitant. “Imageboards have a bad reputation, though, don’t they?”

“Don’t worry, Nadine,” Steve reassured her. “If you use an IP address randomizer, you’re completely anonymous, and we can just say to contact the local police department. It’ll be fine. Right, Dad?”

“Of course,” Eric agreed. “It’ll be super simple.”

After all that, Nadine gave in. “Oh, all right. Here.” She concentrated a moment before saying, “Paper and pencil, create!” On her lap, a piece of paper quickly materialized, with hardly any waiting since it was a small object. The pencil took about two minutes longer. “OK!” Nadine exclaimed, once they were both created. She put the paper on the window so there’d be a hard surface and closed her eyes. “Draw,” she whispered.

Steve and Eric watched as Nadine began to draw a very lifelike sketch of her mother, still with her eyes closed. After a few minutes of this, Steve asked, “So, uh, how are you doing that?”

Nadine stopped drawing and turned to look at them. “It’s magic, of course!” she said cheekily. “It’s a trick I picked up back home. If you know something, but you can’t quite recall it, then let the magic do the work for you. It’s pretty boring, though, since you have to physically hold the drawing implement at all times for it to work, so I don’t do it that often. You basically just sit there and wait for the picture to finish.”

“I wouldn’t mind learning that,” said Steve. “It’ll make some of those tests an absolute breeze!” Eric gave his son a very disapproving stare at this, but didn’t say anything. Unfortunately for Steve, he didn’t have to.

“Steve, that’s no excuse!” Nadine said loudly. “You should always do the best you can do under your own power! This is only for emergencies where that’s not possible. For example…” she thought a moment before continuing, “…take that game you like, soccer. Say you enchanted the ball to dribble itself or pass itself whenever it came near you without you having to do a thing except mimic its motions. There’d be no possibility of you making mistakes, and so nothing to worry about except whether the rest of your team is any good. In that instance, would the game be any fun to you if all the uncertainty is taken out?”

“OK, I see your point,” Steve admitted.

They sat in silence for a moment before Eric asked, “So what exactly is going to happen? Do I need to call an ambulance and have it on standby?”

“No, that might scare them off,” said Nadine. “Wait until everybody that’s staying is through, then call.” With that, she went back to her drawing, the spell picking up right where it left off. A little bit later, the picture was done. “Good, holding the paper up was exhausting,” Nadine complained, taking the paper and passing it over to Eric.

Steve, who was also curious, looked over as well. The picture was incredibly detailed, like something out of a graphic novel, which made it even more surprising that it had been completed in about ten minutes. It helped that it only showed her mother’s face. From what he could tell, Nadine looked a lot like her mother, although the way her hair grew was different. That was basically the only difference, though. “What’d you say her name was, again?”

“Madelaine,” Nadine confirmed. “It’s an odd spelling with an extra ‘a’ in it.” She took the paper back and wrote ‘M-A-D-E-L-A-I-N-E P-R-E-S-T-O-N’ in all caps before giving it back. The car then stopped, signaling their arrival.

Eric pocketed the drawing, paid the fare, and put in a command to tell the car to wait. “Looks like somebody’s farm,” he remarked as the three hopped an old, wooden fence and entered a field. They were well away from anybody now, and it was very rural.

Nadine pulled out the letter she’d received from Rachel with the contact instructions. Below the geographic coordinates were the words ‘Find the large silo, then take thirty steps north. Be there at 11:37 AM precisely.’

“Here’s a question for you,” said Steve as the three began trudging through the tall grass, which seemed to be an abandoned field. Vertical farming and other advances in farming technology had started making traditional family farms go extinct, so it made sense the place was abandoned. “How do people from your world know about where our Portals are, or about latitude and longitude or any number of other things they shouldn’t?”

The silo came into view over a hill, and they turned towards it while still walking. “From what I’ve heard Father say, after the murder of Queen Rebecca, he sent several of our citizens here to Industria to keep an eye on you in case they planned to invade us again.”

“You mean spies?” Eric asked darkly. Nadine flinched from his tone.

“Well, kind of,” she continued meekly. “But that’s all I know, so don’t ask me about anything else!” It wasn’t like his father to get annoyed or angry very often, so Steve shared Nadine’s sentiments to drop the subject.

They walked in silence for the next five minutes, each of them doing their own thing. Nadine was the navigator, Steve was busy chatting with his friends online, and Eric was looking intently at the illustration Nadine had provided him.

When they reached the silo, Nadine checked the time. “OK, it’s 11:20. We’re way early. Do you two want to rest? It’s pretty hot out here today, especially for the winter.”

It was about sixty-five degrees Fahrenheit, but that was normal for that time of year. “Yeah, we might as well,” said Eric. “Besides, I’m about ready for lunch.” He then promptly sat down at the foot of the silo.

“Lunch?” Steve exclaimed. “When’d you have breakfast?”

“Six-thirty, same as every day,” Eric said calmly. He pulled an oatmeal bar out of his pocket, tore off the biodegradable packaging, and put a bite in his mouth.

Neither Steve nor Nadine were hungry, so they just passed the time chatting. “Oh, I tried that video game you wanted me to play,” said Nadine cheerfully. “You know, the one with the plumber and the mushrooms? It was really hard; I think the jump button on your controller sucks.”

“The girl who took on the Callistian General and won can’t land a jump in the first level?” Steve teased.

“It’s not just that!” she protested. “There were these holes in the ground, bouncing turtle shells, and I got stuck in a box!”

“Well, it takes practice,” he told her. “The older games in particular are way harder than the newer ones. Which one was it?”

She thought about it. “I don’t remember. All I know is that there was this guy throwing fireballs at me in the castle and I couldn’t figure out how to get by him.”

That didn’t really narrow it down much. “Here’s a hint: get to the axe,” Steve said.

“No! Don’t tell me!” she said loudly, covering her ears, which made Steve laugh. He could always count on Nadine to brighten his mood and calm his nerves just by being herself. She checked the time and said, “We’ve got a little less than five minutes, so let’s go get ready.” She stood up, brushed herself off, checked their bearings, and began walking north, running off ahead in her excitement.

The two rejoined Nadine a little ways off, who had stopped at the appropriate location. “I can sense the Portal,” said Nadine, pointing to a location to their right. “It’s approaching this exact spot.” Without waiting for a response, she opened a bag she’d brought with her, which Steve hadn’t noticed she’d had before. After rooting around in it for a minute, she withdrew a small slip of paper. Reading off it, she said, “Hades is not evil.” Off to their right, there was a slight flicker of orange.

“What was that?” Steve asked curiously.

“The safe phrase,” Nadine replied. “Every Portal has one in order to help determine if you’re close to one or not. It doesn’t open it, and you have to be within fifty paces of it for the flicker to trigger.”

“Hades is not evil,” Eric repeated quietly. The Portal flickered again, making him look up in excitement.

The minutes ticked by as the three waited impatiently for the time the Portal would open approached. At 11:37 precisely, there was another flash of orange as the Portal opened directly in front of them. It was just as Steve remembered, with the orange flaming center where the flames appeared to be flowing inward instead of upward. The Portal grew larger in size, so the trio took a few steps back. A black speck appeared at the center of the Portal, and grew larger and larger in size until they could see a man appearing. Then the man hit the Portal and tumbled out into their world.

“Hey, you OK?” Eric asked the man, who had fallen onto one knee, panting heavily. He was covered from head to toe in armor, with the Marisian coat of arms on his shield.

“Wait, something isn’t right,” said Nadine suspiciously.

The fallen figure then pushed Eric away, withdrew his sword, and pointed it at them. “You’re right, it’s not,” he responded. As they were focused on the figure, suddenly more men emerged from the Portal, this time dressed as a completely different army, with a different style of armor, a different style of sword that looked like a katana, and different emblems on their shields and armor. Their emblem wasn’t the Marisian reindeer in front of the sun, but of a light green tree.

“Elves!” Nadine exclaimed, pulling Steve and Eric away from them. There were now about ten Elves there, and more were on the way. “They must’ve gotten word of the exchange and planned an invasion!”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Human,” an elf said, lifting his visor to show a light green/light brown face and silver eyes, a completely different look from the dark green Goblins. “We just received word of a party going here, so we came to stop it. Now, you’re outnumbered five to one, so how about you just come with us and we’ll avoid fighting?”

Steve glanced at his dad out of the corner of his eye, and saw that he was dialing his phone behind his back with his left hand. His right hand was hovering over the holster of his service weapon, which police officers almost always carried, even when off-duty. “Steve, Nadine, get behind me,” said Eric firmly, removing the gun and cocking it one-handed. He finished dialing the number, put the phone on speaker, and tossed it aside so he could hold the weapon with two hands. The two teens quickly followed his orders. “I must warn you all that I’m an officer of the law, and that your intentions equate to attempted kidnapping. If you attempt to kidnap any one of us, I will be forced to open fire, and I’m pretty sure those dinky metal shields won’t stop bullets.”

Steve was ready to flee, and so was Nadine, but they had hesitated too long, and they were now surrounded. The Elves, realizing Eric had a point, had to improvise. Then someone in the back threw a mass of what looked to be dried grass, but what turned out to be a smoke bomb. Smoke billowed out of the smoke bomb and completely obscured their vision in a matter of seconds. It was apparently some kind of tear gas as well, as all three started coughing uncontrollably. To avoid losing each other, Steve and Nadine pressed close to Eric. Unfortunately, that turned out to be a mistake as since Eric didn’t move, the Elves knew exactly where to go to surround them. They quickly did so, and soon enough Steve felt swords pressing into his stomach. Just as quickly, the three were thrown to the ground and tied up, with Eric getting his weapon confiscated.

“I am an officer of the law!” Eric shouted. “Kidnapping a police officer is a very serious offence! They’re going to throw the book at you for this!”

“We asked nicely, and you refused,” said the Elf. “Our leader wishes to speak with you, so that’s why you’re coming with us. Now, stop resisting!” Steve didn’t stop, though, and that earned him a sharp blow to the head, knocking him out.