“Can we talk for a second?,” Ray asked. He looked at the assistant. It wasn’t the

youngest one, but the one closer to Sandra’s perceived age. “I have some bad news

I have to show you and Sam.”

“Go ahead, Winnie,” Sandra told her assistant. “I will be along in a minute.”

The assistant frowned at Ray. She seemed ready to object at his smiling face, and

metal hand and arm, and strange clothes.

“Don’t worry,” said Ray. “She’ll be along shortly.”

“Go ahead, Winnie,” said Sandra. She waved her hand. “What do you want to show

me, magician?”

“Not a magician,” said Ray. “I’m more like a magic weapon user, however that

translates for the locals. As soon as I’m done, I have to give the magic weapon back.”

He knew she didn’t believe him. What he was about to do wasn’t going to help that

in any way he could figure. It was best to get on with it.

“Lamp, display door/star animation we came up with last night,” thought Ray.

Affirmative.

Blue light became an image of the map of the continent. The sky filled with stars.

Then the first door opened. Time moved on. The other three doors opened. Then

Barley came into view. The sign appeared over the university grounds.

“Another door is going to open up here,” said Sandra. “That’s impossible.”

“I need you to keep a lookout for anyone strange on the grounds,” said Ray. “There

is a sign part to it. I don’t know how he intends to carve all the words in, but he has

to do that before he can do the spell.”

“Are you sure about that?,” asked Sandra.

“I found traces of words at the other four sites, so he has to have something written

down,” said Ray. “Unless the words are carved in when he does the spell.”

“I will have to warn the faculty,” said Sandra. “They might not be willing to believe

you.”

“I know,” said Ray. “I wanted to warn you and Sam first since you’re here. I’m going

to track down Lord Brian and warn him. He seems to have an in with the local

adventurers, so that will put the word out on the street. I would feel better if I knew

whom I was looking for. That would speed things up for me dramatically.”

“He might be a better magician than you,” said Sandra.

“I’m not a magician,” said Ray. “I’m just a guy with a light installed in his arm. They

could have put it in my chest, but the guy didn’t want to have to pull it out when I get

this guy and go home. An arm was easier for the lazy sod. I want you to be careful

and keep an eye out.”

“I will,” said Sandra. “I have been careful all my life.”

Ray nodded before he walked away. He still had to warn Sam before he started

looking for Lord Brian.

“Lamp, can you do remote viewing?,” thought Ray.

He felt a gentle search through his memories. This was the first time the spark didn’t

know what he meant right off the bat. He thought that it was inevitable that this

would happen.

Affirmative.

“Can you do it while doing other things?,” asked Ray.

Affirmative depending on the nature of the other things.

“I want you to set up something to watch the walls while we’re going about the rest

of our business,” thought Ray. “Even if we can’t stop the door from opening, I want

a picture to give to Woad when we are recalled so the next guy can find our villain

and take him down.”

Understood.

“And there should probably be an alarm in case it sees the guy making his marks so

we can get here and stop him before he gets started,” thought Ray.

Affirmative.

Blue light flared on the tallest building on campus. Ray squinted. Vision feeds of the

wall filled his sight. He paused in his walk up to Sam’s place because he couldn’t see

the real world around him.

“You’re going to have to dial this back a little,” thought Ray. “I can’t see anything

but the wall.”

The feeds became a flipping picture in the corner of his vision opposite the

countdown clock.

“That’s better,” thought Ray.

He walked up to Sam’s place and knocked on the door. He hoped to catch the old guy

in. Once he had this warning out of the way, he could warn Lord Brian, and then keep

a better watch on the wall.

Stopping this guy early would be great. He might be able to keep the lamp to help

with his business. Who didn’t want to program code instantly? It would make his life

so much easier.

Affirmative.

“It’s you,” said Sam. He smiled down at Ray.

“I already talked to Sandra,” said Ray. “I think the fifth door is going to open up here

on campus.”

“It would almost have to,” said Sam. He pulled on a dark red coat over his white tunic

and blue breeches. “This is the hub of adventurers in this part of the world.”

“So if a door opened in the middle of things, most of the fighters would be gone in

a surprise attack,” said Ray. “But the effect is random. There’s no way to predict it

unless you could do what I did.”

“And what did you do, my magician friend,” said Sam.

“I’m not a magician,” said Ray. He held up his metal hand. He thought, “Run

animation.”

The scene repeated for Sam. He rubbed his chin as he watched.

“The area marked is not just the university,” said Sam. “It’s all of Grandview. That’s

a big area to cover.”

“I’m going to talk to Lord Brian,” said Ray. “Maybe he can get some people to stand

guard.”

“I was going to the adventurer’s guild room,” said Sam. “Maybe there’s some people

there we can use to look around. You don’t happen to know what this summoner

looks like?”

“Not yet,” said Ray. “My name is Ray. If any of Lord Brian’s crowd is there, they’ll

at least listen to you about this.”

“Adventurers are always willing to listen to the call to adventure,” said Sam. He

smiled.

“We’re not talking about an adventure, Sam,” said Ray. “We’re talking about

someone trying to kill everyone in the world.”

“That’s what makes it an adventure, Ray,” said Sam. “Otherwise where would the fun

be?”

“I guess I can see that,” said Ray.

“I’ll go down and see who I can round up,” said Sam. “A lot of the guild could be out

on the job. I’ll leave a notice to let them know that I’ll need them.”

“Thanks,” said Ray. He turned and headed for the wall. He didn’t like the fact the

whole neighborhood could go up in an instant.

How many dead would result from that?

“Lamp, put drones on the other wall too if you can,” thought Ray as he jogged along.

“We can’t let this guy succeed.”

Affirmative.

Ray climbed through the neighborhood wall. He had no problem picking out the

additional cameras in action. He nodded. Even if they didn’t stop the guy, they would

know what he looked like unless he had already made preparations when the wall

went up.

That was an additional layer of problems on top of everything else.

“Lamp, do you know where Lord Brian is right now?,” thought Ray. He expected

Lord Brian to live inside Grandview. He didn’t have a home address, and he didn’t

want to knock on every door looking for him.

Negative.

“Could you locate him please?,” asked Ray.

Affirmative.

A blue beam spun around Ray, cutting through the buildings. A marker lit up where

the peacock was. It started moving, so he knew the lord was moving too.

Ray jogged toward the marker, cutting down alleys and empty spaces as he went. He

almost smiled when he saw the red armor ahead. He was glad he had been in good

shape before this. Running around the town with no car was a pain.

“Lord Brian!,” Ray called. He waved a hand to get the adventurer’s attention.

The other man turned at his name. People cleared away around him. They might be

looking at a duel in the making.

“Morning, Ray,” said the man in red. “How can I help you?”

Ray came to a halt and fought to catch his breath. He shook his head.

“Don’t do enough running?,” asked Lord Brian.

“I have been running all morning,” said Ray. “I think the next door is going to open

up at the Grandview. Does the city have enough adventurers and watch to handle it

if it does open?”

“Not if you are talking about the whole of the area,” said Lord Brian.

“I’m going to let you figure that part out,” said Ray. “I have to go back and examine

the walls for markings. The sign is going to be right over the thing. Maybe he is

taking this time around off.”

“Do you really think that?,” asked Lord Brian.

“The people who called in my marker didn’t think so, and they know more about this

than I do, so I am going to have to say no,” said Ray. “If we can just get a glimpse of

him, the rest might be easy enough to do.”

“I understand,” said Lord Brian. “Is there anything else I need to know?”

“I told Sam and Sandra,” said Ray. “Sandra said she would keep a lookout for me,

and Sam said he would try to get some recruits from the adventurers.”

“I’ll let Neffer know so he can spread the word among the magical community,” said

Lord Brian. “Someone must know someone who can do this summons.”

“That doesn’t mean they would tell him that they knew,” said Ray. “He’s one of the

good guys. People who can do this sort of thing won’t tell him anything.”

“It’s the best we can do right now,” said Lord Brian. “We have an unknown villain

opening the door to reality destroying monsters inside one of the more prosperous

areas of the city. We don’t have the manpower to stop anything bigger than the last

demon wave.”

“I’ll keep working on it,” said Ray. “I’ll come up with something.”

“I have a meeting with the local nobility and their chiefs of staff,” said Lord Brian.

“I’ll pass on everything. Maybe we can get extra bodies out there to put a better net

out.”

“I’ll meet you at the Blue Oak at sundown,” said Ray. “We still have time before the

constellations line up. We have to keep pushing until we break through.”

“I’ll be there,” said Lord Brian.

He walked off toward the towers of the local authority.

Ray winced at his stomach growling. He pulled one of the last of his sandwiches out

and ate that as he walked back toward the enclosed community.