“Should you be walking?” Hazelmere sounded like a reprimanding mother.

“I can’t take it anymore. I’ll go insane from doing nothing,” Heartwell responded.

“You look so weak, I bet even a single slap from me would knock you off your feet.”

He gave her a weak smile: “I’d like to see you try. Anyway, what’s going on? Have the demons moved yet?”

Hazelmere sighed: “It has been three days now, and nothing has changed. They are still standing near the portal, doing nothing. They aren’t even trying to spread their corruption anymore. They are just standing there. The drumming noise comes near the portal, stays for some time, and then disappears. That happens several times per day. They did place some things around it, marking it for some reason. You would think the portal would be obvious, but hey, I don’t know how the demonic minds work.”

“Could it be something magical?”

Hazelmere shrugged: “It could be, we have no idea. We can’t sense any energy on the other side, so we can’t tell.”

“Some magical, guiding beacons for their army, perhaps?”

That made Hazelmere’s ears raise up: “It … it could be …”

“Vukasin said he had sent a messenger to the palace.”

“Yes, he did. Hopefully, a few of our armies will join us soon.”

Heartwell shook his head slowly: “No way. That’s not gonna happen.”

“Why not? The Empire is clearly threatened now.”

“It has been threatened for a long time, from all sides. The armies are needed elsewhere, to fight the hosagians. There’s no way our armies will be marching here. Not until the demons cross the portal.”

“Won’t it be late then? I am not a military expert, but isn’t it better to stop the demonic army at the gates than to have it plunder and murder all over our realm?”

“We don’t have a good defensive position here. When the demonic armies start marching, we’ll fortify the closest castle or a city. That way, we’ll have much better chances of defeating them. And, as we fight the siege, the other nations will probably join us. Hopefully, the angels too.”

“What about the farms and the villages?”

“They aren’t important. If there’s time, the lords may try to get the farmers and the villagers into the cities too. But that would create more problems than it’s worth. You’d have much more people to feed during the siege, and that’s the last thing you want.”

A soldier walked into the tent, interrupting the conversation.

“Miss mage …”

“Archmage! The royal archmage at that!” Hazelmere corrected him.

“Miss … royal … highness, we need you at the stones!”

“What’s happening?” Heartwell asked.

“I don’t know. The mages didn’t tell me.”

---

“Are they crossing the portal?” Hazelmere asked in a loud voice as soon as she had arrived.

“Umm, yes … but not in a manner you would expect them to.”

Hazelmere gave Cybil a reprimanding frown.

“Take a look yourself.”

With an irritated grunt, Hazelmere put her hands on the stones.

“What am I supposed to look at?”

“Look directly at the portal.”

“Ok, I see it. What about it?”

“Do you see the three demons standing near it? One of them is holding something in his hands.”

“Yes, I see them.”

“Do you see something like a thin leash going out of whatever he is holding in his hands?”

“Hmm … oh yes, I see it now. There is no way I would see it if it wasn’t black. It is so tiny!”

“Follow the leash with your eyes.”

“What makes you think it is a leash … oh …”

“That’s why we think that is a leash.”

“Is that … is that some kind of a bug?”

“It looks like it.”

“It is … it is crawling over the ice.”

“And, much more importantly, it is on our side of the portal.”

Hazelmere lifted her head to look at Cybil.

“They are testing to see if the creatures from their world can cross the portal …”

“… and it looks like they can,” Cybil finished Hazelmere’s sentence.”

“But … but that makes no sense! I saw it with my own eyes, that huge beast running back! It was clearly hurt! It wouldn’t have run otherwise!”

“They are probably trying to see how long that bug can survive. I guess the leash is there so they can pull the corpse back once it dies. Do you know what that means?”

“They are studying it!”

Cybil nodded slowly, with a dead serious look on her face: “These aren’t some mindless demons. They are using the same methods we would use.”

“I disagree,” Mizette said, “when we were summoning the portal, we brought no animals to send over there. No one has even mentioned it. I would argue that these demons could be even smarter than we are.”

Cybil dismissed Mizette’s opinion with a lazy wave of her hand: “They have to be more cautious because they weren’t the ones who have summoned it. They have no idea what they are dealing with, whereas we do.”

“Really? Is that why we’re staying here to guard against the demonic invasion, because that was exactly what we wanted to do?” Heartwell didn’t bother hiding his sarcasm one bit.

“I don’t expect a peasant to understand. I was talking about the methodology, not unforeseen consequences. The point being, these aren’t some savage, wild demons we have heard so much about.”

“These ones are much more intelligent and far better organized.”

“Exactly!”

After agreeing with Cybil, Hazelmere put her hands back on the stones.

“Oh, no.”

“What, what is it?” Cybil got her attention back to the stones in a hurry.

“It’s crawling back.”

“What is?”

“The bug! It’s crawling back on its own.”

Hazelmere watched as the bug crawled back to the other side, looking completely unhurt. One of the demons picked it up in his hands (at least Hazelmere assumed it was a male), after which all three demons started walking away from the portal.

Hazelmere opened her eyes with a depressed look on her face.

“It has survived. They didn’t have to drag it out with a leash. It crawled back on its own.”

“Maybe it was starting to feel the pain, so it ran back?” Cybil offered a vague guess.

“Maybe. But now we have seen proof that the demons and the beasts on the other side can survive in our world. At least for a bit.”

“The question is, for how long?” Cybil pointed out.

“Indeed.”

---

For the next few days, the demons repeated the same thing over and over again. They’d send a bug on a leash through the portal, let it roam around for a bit, and then it would return to them.

“I have something,” Mizette said to the archmages who were sitting near the stones, “come and see this.”

“What? What is happening?”

“The bug they have sent isn’t moving this time.”

Hazelmere stood up to look through the stones, and indeed, she saw a bug sitting still at the very edge of the portal. It wasn’t moving at all.

“It doesn’t look like anything is wrong with it,” she pointed out, “it is not like it has flipped over, or something similar.”

“Yes, but we have never seen it stand still like that.”

“The bug isn’t moving, but the demons are much more animated than before.”

“They certainly are.”

“Look, they are sending another one!”

“Is it ... it is trying to push the first bug back?”

“It looks like it.”

“Oh! Look at the first bug! The one that is being pushed! It has no leash!”

“So?”

Everyone was silent for a few moments. With a gasp, Mizette opened her eyes to look at Hazelmere.

“I think I know what the leash is for! I think it may have nothing to do with pulling the bug back or making sure it doesn’t run away!”

“Well, what else could the leash be for?”

“They are using it to transfer the energy to the bug!”

Hazelmere opened her eyes, looking skeptically at Mizette.

“I mean, it doesn’t have to be a leash at all!” Mizette continued, “We have assumed it was a leash because they have attached it to the creature. But it is too thin, and … don’t you think it would be strange to stuff a leash into a bug’s rear end?”

Hazelmere made a disgusted face.

“Look at it! Look at the bug they have sent to push the first one out! It is facing away from us, and you can clearly see that the leash, or whatever it is, is … well … stuffed into its rear end.”

Still looking disgusted, Hazelmere closed her eyes to take another look.

“Oh, that really is the case!”

“A leash is put on the throat or a limb. I am yet to see …”

“I know, I know! You don’t have to say it!”

“So, it would make more sense for it to be something else!”

“But, why do you think they are transmitting the energy through it?” Cybil asked.

“I am assuming that because the bug that isn’t moving has no … thread, attached to it. It stopped moving the moment it has crossed the portal because it was cut off from its world’s energy. However, the bug pushing her has the thread which, I assume, is providing it with the necessary energy. That is why it can move while the first one can’t.”

“So, are you saying they have played it safe up to this point and now want to see if they can survive on the other side without the constant energy supply?”

“I can’t say for sure, but that would make sense.”

“Still … using such a disgusting method … even if it works …” Hazelmere couldn’t get over it.

“Would that even work? Is something like that even possible?” Cybil asked no one in particular, scratching her chin.

“… has … anyone … ever tried … something like that …” Moana asked, her fingers fidgety and her head low.

“I have never heard of such a method, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn the elves have tried it,” Cybil responded.

“Maybe that is why they are so good at magic? Maybe that is what they mean when they say: our connection with magic is so deep, no mortal race could ever understand it.”

The archmages laughed at Mizette’s joke, but Hazelmere didn’t appreciate it. She did her best to shift the conversation with the first chance she got.

“Oh, it is moving again!”

“It has recovered as soon as it back into their world. I think I may really be onto something here,” Mizette said proudly.

“That would explain why that huge beast ran away. It was large, so it would make sense for it to have plenty of energy stored in its body. But small creatures, like insects, are incapacitated instantly.”

“So, the energies of our worlds really are colliding with each other!” Cybil stated, “We can’t go through the portal, but neither can they!”

“That is where you are wrong,” Mizette countered, “they can cross it, but they need a constant energy supply to survive. So, prepare for the demonic invasion, with rows upon rows of crazed, demonic soldiers charging at you, all of them having threads sticking out of …”

“Shut up!”