Hazelmere observed the muddy, smashed landscape, trying to figure out what to do next. She quickly noticed that, while the mages were too busy drying themselves and postulating all kinds of useless ideas, the soldiers were already acting. Even without any specific orders, they’ve started rebuilding the camp. The ground wasn’t dry yet, but they didn’t seem to care.

Unlike the mages, not a single soldier looked lost. Not a single one of them asked questions. All of them knew exactly what they had to do in this desperate moment.

Act.

“Huh, what a wondrous lesson to be taught by such primitives,” she thought.

“Maybe, we should just leave?”

Hearing Peratha’s words stopped Hazelmere’s thoughts.

“What?”

“Maybe, we should just go. If the immortals can’t close it, what can we achieve? What difference can we make here?”

Peratha was completely covered in mud, a result of the dive Hazelmere threw her into. That only accentuated her fatigued looks. The usually energetic fire mage had a very limp and impotent air around her.

“What are you talking about? How can we leave? It is our duty to stay here!”

“And do what exactly! What can we do that an army of immortals can’t?”

Hazelmere noticed the other mages silently agreeing with Peratha.

So, she fixed Peratha with a stern look, which looked very strange on her untrained face.

“And what would you have us do? Roll over and die?”

“What do you want us to do, miss royal archmage? How is us being here helping anything? Shouldn’t we go back to help organize defenses of our cities?”

“Defenses from what? Nothing came through yet!”

“Do you honestly think that Yesis and the demons came here because that portal is harmless? Do you honestly think they would try to stop the divines from closing it if it didn’t benefit them somehow?”

Hazelmere’s look wasn’t so stern anymore. Looking around, Hazelmere saw the other mages nodding their heads.

“We should just pack up and leave. We don’t even have a camp anymore!” Peratha waved her open palm around as if trying to show Hazelmere the landscape.

“I have to agree with Peratha,” Natle said, “there is nothing we can do here. We can’t fight here, there is nothing we can use. We have no fortifications. Whatever spawns out of the portal can go in whichever direction it wants.”

“We can’t even see the damn thing since it is sitting on the top of the hill!” Peratha pointed out.

That gave Hazelmere a surge of inspiration.

“Wait, wait, let me think,” she said with her hand stretched out towards Peratha, as if she was trying to stop her from getting closer.

“What if … hmm … yes … that … I guess we could do that … yes, that would definitely stop him from …”

“What are you mumbling about?” Peratha said in a tired voice.

The other mages looked at Hazelmere as if she was mad, but none of them had enough willpower for any further arguing, so nobody interrupted her. After some more mumbling, she raised her right hand, pointing the index finger up in the air.

“I know! I know what we can do!” She said excitedly, her tail moving with a lot of vigor.

Peratha let out a labored sigh in response.

“We can’t close the portal, that much is obvious, but we can’t just go empty-handed either! First of all, we must get our eyes on the portal! We must know what is happening out there and if anything is trying to cross it!”

“And how are we supposed to do that? We can’t get anywhere near it!”

“We will use a magescope! We will bind a chunky crystal to it, filled with mana, and once we put it out there we will see what is going on!”

“But the portal is draining magic! It won’t last a few days near it!”

“Your spell worked! You were able to cast it near the portal.”

“I had to move away from it, quite a lot. And even then, it took much more mana than necessary to maintain the spell.”

“Well, it doesn’t have to be near the portal! We just need to put it somewhere where it will have an unobstructed view of it! We just need to see if something is trying to get across. And, you can use the same spell you used before to place it there! Once we recover our mana, we will all go together and place the magescope at a suitable location!”

“And what would be the point of that?”

“The point would be that, at the first hint of danger, we can run away! I am not asking any of you to die here, fighting the monsters coming from the other side. We will run at first sight of danger. We will always have someone watching through the magescope, day and night.”

“It’s better to have at least two people, preferably more, so they can keep each other awake,” Heartwell added.

“Two people! Great!”

“But even then, what would be the point of it?” Peratha was insistent, “What are we doing here if we will be running at the first sign of danger?”

“We will be gathering information.”

There was a short pause. As if Hazelmere expected them to challenge her on it.

“I agree with you, Peratha,” Hazelmere continued, “we can’t win any battles here. But we won’t win any battles anywhere unless we know what we are dealing with. So far, we saw nothing but trees and ice on the other side. We must gather some information on what we are facing so that our cities would know what kind of defenses to prepare! To know what kind of magic will be the most effective!”

“If the world on the other side is frozen, then it is only natural for the fire magic to be the most effective,” Cybil pointed out.

“Hazelmere may actually have a point here,” Natle said, while stroking her chin, “the other side isn’t just frozen. It is also draining any magic that comes near it! So, imagine if we would leave to prepare our defenses somewhere else. We would go and prepare our magical defenses, huge barriers for our walls, and many fireballs at the ready. And then, the enemies just walk through our barriers, because anything magical is drained instantly as soon as they come near it. At the same time, our fireballs would dissipate before hitting anything for the same reason! We would lose dozens of cities like that because we have based our defenses on unsubstantiated reasoning!”

“Oh, come on! Draining magic? Really?”

Hazelmere pointed dramatically at Peratha: “You just said your magic was being drained rapidly! Someone here said that we should keep all the options open since we have no idea what we are up against, and I agree! This is why the best thing we can do right now is to gather as much information as possible!”

“And how are we going to do that, genius? Ok, we set up a magescope to observe the other side, and then what? What if we see nothing? Will you absolve us of our duty then?”

Hazelmere eyed Peratha for a while before answering.

“If we see nothing but those trees in one moon, I will. No, two moons! If we find nothing in three moons, I will go back to the palace and ask his majesty to leave a few regular mages here as observers, just in case.”

“Speaking of which, can’t we ask his majesty to send a bigger force to guard the portal?” Mizette asked nobody in particular, “Considering the angels have failed to close it, and all of that. If we are to get any help, it will have to come from the Emperor.”

“The soldiers are much more useful elsewhere,” Heartwell responded, “we’re still at war with the hosagians, and the soldiers are much more useful fighting it than guarding a portal that isn’t spawning anything.”

“At the moment,” Mizette pointed out.

“And that’s why we’re here.”

“Yes,” Hazelmere agreed with Heartwell, perhaps too eagerly, “we are here to learn as much as we can, but there is no point in keeping us here for long. Just like the soldiers, we are much more useful elsewhere. So, let us get to it, let us do everything we can so we can leave this place as soon as possible! For starters, let us get a sight on that thing and, while we are at it, we can also scoop some of that gooey ice and run some tests on it. Maybe its composition will tell us something.”

Peratha let out yet another sigh: “At least that sounds like a plan. I am still against it though, it is probably nothing but a waste of our time, but I am ok with us being here as long as we can contribute somehow.”

“I am glad to hear that because we can’t do it without you,” Hazelmere did her best to sound appreciative, “only your magic can get us anywhere near the portal.”

“I will escort you personally, with a few of my soldiers. Who knows, maybe something did spawn out of the portal but didn’t go very far.”

“It would make sense for the creatures on the other side to be ice-bound.”

“What do you mean, Natle?” Mizette asked.

“It is nothing but a wild hypothesis, but it may be possible that we are dealing with a world which has some kind of anti-magic. There is no life without energy, and considering that we saw the trees on the other side, there has to be some energy out there. But its form may be so alien, to the point it is the exact opposite of all the energy forms we are aware of. That would explain why we can’t detect any energy. The energy on the other side and the energy of our world are perhaps canceling each other as soon as they make contact. So, just how we can’t survive near the portal, maybe the creatures beyond it can’t survive in our world? It is possible they experience the same energy drain we do as soon as they approach the portal. To summarize, just because we can’t detect any energy on the other side, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. We just don’t know what to look for.”

All the present mages nodded their heads in unison.

“So … if that is true, then we have nothing to be afraid of? If that is true, then the creatures on the other side can’t move deeper into our world since there is no ice,” Mizette pondered.

“But why would the demons come all the way here to fight the immortals if the other side is harmless?” Cybil pointed out.

“Umm …” Moana spoke softly, “… wouldn’t that imply that … the ice … it may be how the corruption of the other world is spreading … maybe it will … keep growing …”

“That is true. Just because it hasn’t reached us yet, that doesn’t mean it has stopped spreading,” Natle agreed.

“And … the demons always strive to spread their … corruption … maybe … if there are demons … on the other side … they will start spreading their … corrupted ice … as soon as they notice the portal … maybe you have indeed opened a portal to … hell … a new, frozen kind of hell …”

The mood worsened immediately.

“We can’t detect the energy on the other side, right?” Cybil said, “If what you said is true, about the different kinds of energy canceling each other, then it would make sense for the demons on the other side to be completely unaware of the portal’s existence.”

“But we can detect the portal!” Mizette pointed out.

“Because we made it with our energy! It is using our magic to work, not theirs!”

“Speaking of which, if your hypothesis is true Natle, then how come the portal didn’t collapse upon itself?” Hazelmere asked, “I mean, shouldn’t this so-called anti-energy cancel it out?”

“That is a good point,” Cybil agreed, “and, perhaps, the answer lies in the scrolls. All those circular movements you have discovered and yet the portal is stationary. The landscape wasn’t moving at all! Maybe, under certain conditions, those conflicting types of magic can coexist? Maybe all those complications in the scrolls we thought were unnecessary serve that purpose? Who knows, I am just throwing ideas over here.”

“And that is exactly what we should do! This is exactly what I mean by trying to get more information! We can’t go our ways yet, because there are so many things we haven’t even considered!”

“Excuse me, but are the two of you agreeing with one another?” Peratha looked judgingly at both Hazelmere and Cybil.

They exchanged a confused look between them and, after a few moments, became grumpy once again.

“Even a culiar has its day,” Cybil turned her head away in an irritated manner.

“She may not be good enough to be the royal archmage, but she is still an archmage nonetheless,” Hazelmere retorted.

“Considering you stooped so low, to the point you will gladly take help from a slum-dweller, I guess you don’t find Cybil to be such a nuisance right now,” Peratha teased.

“By the way, why are you still here, Cybil?” Hazelmere asked, “Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the help. I just thought you would love to see me fail. I admit I am reluctant to take any advice from you for that same reason, but what you have just said was very reasonable and constructive.”

“Hmpf,” Cybil raised her nose up in yet another exaggerated display of annoyance, “I am not so petty as to dodge responsibility just to see you fail! Besides, I don’t have to do anything. You are more than capable of failing on your own! And, as much as I want to be wrong on this one, I know, and we all know, that what has happened with the portal wasn’t your fault. You did everything right. And, since we can’t put the blame on you, all the mages will be collectively held responsible for what has happened here. That is why I am willing to help you fix this mess, so the rest of us wouldn’t have our reputations tarnished. And knowing you, you will somehow manage to make the situation even worse! I am staying here to stop you from doing anything stupid!”

Hearing that, Heartwell started laughing wholeheartedly.

“What is so funny?” Cybil asked, still sounding irritated.

“Nothing,” he waved his hand dismissively, “pay no mind to this peasant.”