I sat before a small table in my room, looking at the poor dead mouse. It had worked, sort of, I had managed to kill it with a spell. Sadly, it had not been an easy death on the poor little creature, which had struggled and fought until it's body gave out.

It wasn't the first, there were a few now. My idea to make a spell that replicated the inability to breathe underwater and the feeling thereof was functional, and it did what I wanted. It was also horrid to watch.

The worst part was that in this particular case I'd been trying to make my magic work without singing, or what I felt was a clear performance, no dancing or the like. I'd tried a few things here with varying results. Poetry was hit and miss, my working theory on that was that it had to be 'performed' and just reading it wasn't enough, perhaps if I made it as I went. Acting too was hit or miss, and what I'd used in this case. The trick there was that it had to be clearly acting, not something that might be mistaken for reality.

I had literally killed this poor little creature with my bad acting. There were so many jokes there that it didn't bear going into. They also rang a bit sour, as I didn't much like the idea of torturing small animals, only using them as a necessity.

I'd had about a week working from home, but tomorrow I'd have to go back in and start again with whatever we were doing. I wasn't sure how that would go, being that my ostensible manager was now quite dead, and his replacement, if there was one, hadn't yet been introduced to us. If anyone tried to give me that job though I might just ask to quit.

There were a number of letters from Ulanion on my desk beside the paperwork. We wrote just about every day since our breakfast, an alternative to phone conversations. He was too busy for any real dates for a bit, and I would be soon too, but this was not bad, it was... calmer and less stressful than I'd been expecting.

I put him from my mind and went to bed. There would be much to do, a lot of which couldn't be handled via anything but conversation in person.

I rose with the sun the next morning and got my things together. Since my work was top secret and absolutely never to be taken home this was mostly personal effects. It was interesting how Durin's people ran things. There wasn't trust in that kind of thing, it was all controlled, much more like a modern military might run things than I'd expected. I knew that he'd read some of Ristolian's works, but I had to wonder if those covered information control and it's importance in war and governance, or if that was common before and I'd just never seen it.

The office was the same as it had always been, armed guards, lots of searches and scannings on your way in, the works. After my time away it seemed very personal, but none of the procedures had changed much. Shortly enough I was through and down to the lower levels, where the real work happened.

When I got to the team workshop I found Dras and Selene there already, looking tired as the examined the place.

"Anything new?" I asked, looking at my coworkers.

"Yeah, look at our supplies," Selene responded.

So I did; and it was impressive. There were stacks of raw materials, metals marked with their alloy description, wood of a few of the more mana conductive types, magical creature body parts, and even a small box of gems. The last were only useful in a few specialty magical tools, but those could cost a fortune to make.

"Someone's got a new project for us. Lots of gates based on that pile," I commented.

"Well, you'll be finding out soon enough I believe," a voice interrupted.

I turned to see a prim looking young man with spectacles. I'd seen him a few times here and there, but couldn't quite place him. He certainly had authorization to be here, based on the fact that the guards in the hall hadn't taken him apart, but I didn't know him personally.

"Excuse me, but I don't believe we've met," Selene observed.

"Ah forgive me. I'm one of the archmage's apprentices, Jason." He made a little bow. "It's a shame that I've not had the chance to meet with one of my senior's as well." He made a little nod to me.

Archmage wasn't an official moniker as such, but rather a broad descriptor. It wasn't a 'If you do x and then x. You become an archmage.' rather it was just a word used for incredibly powerful spellcasters. Most would certainly have managed to get their core to it's third and final stage, sure, and most could take on dozens of lesser casters, but there wasn't a hard and fast rule. There was however only one person here who could take that title.

"A pleasure to meet you Jason, but I haven't been trained much by Mystien in many years," I said, nodding back.

"Perhaps, but I can tell by the way he pays attention to your work that he still values you. At any rate, I'm not here for purely a social call, rather to inform you that our collective boss would like a word, and to get to meet all of you."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Dras, specialize primarily in fire magic," Dras said, taking the initiative.

"Selene, my focus is a bit more broad, but if anything I'm here because I excel in magical items." Selene waved with a small smile.

"And I'm Alana, support magic and item specialist. I'm not quite as good at making new things as Selene here, but do better at finding issues and fixing them."

"Well met everyone, shall we?" He made a motion to the hall.

As we headed to Mystien's office we chatted lightly. Jason had been recruited by Mystien during the war, and had served with him throughout. His specialty was of course water, and he was a wizard. I knew that my old teacher had a number of students that he'd taken in, but we'd drifted apart, at least to an extent.

"Come in," the old man called at our knock.

Mystien's office was a spartan affair. There were books and shelves, a desk piled high with research notes and paperwork, and a very comfortable looking chair for the man himself, but not much else. It almost reminded me of his house back in the village, nice, but rather more plain than most of the rich folk's residences that I'd seen over the years.

As for the man himself, it struck me hard how much he'd aged. Sure, he'd been old since I'd known him, but seeing him in this place really made me think about how many years I'd known the man. He was looking like the wizened old mage you'd see on the cover of any number of fantasy books back on Earth, not the much more spry, hard worn elder I'd known in my childhood.

"Something wrong?" He asked after we came in, seeing my face.

"Sorry, just been thinking a lot today. I realized how much you've changed since we met."

My remark got a scoff from the old wizard. "You're one to talk. Ah, but let's reminisce another time, we've business to discuss." He cleared his throat and looked us over, "I'm glad you've all met Jason, and I do hope you'll get along. He'll be joining you for some much needed support, with the loss of your previous leader, and the outright destruction of the majority of the portal creation teams we need badly to get to work rebuilding."

"So... is Jason to be our new supervisor then?" Selene asked.

"Not in the same way. Jason is skilled at administrative work and war magic, and will be aiding you in those, but you four will all be reporting directly to me for the time being. We've got a number of things that need doing now, particularly since we've proven the concept of portals as viable."

Papers were passed out, outlining a few short term goals. We needed to get enough support staff who could make portals up and running, as well as standardized portal control and build layouts. The Emperor as well wanted to get our first working pair out... as soon as possible. There was a note that he'd already concluded plans for installing the first pair.

"We've got our first order in already?" I asked, that was fast by any metric.

"Yes, Emperor Durin is quite eager to get some out into the world," Jason answered.

"Indeed," Mystien agreed. "Dras here will go back to the improvement of his core. The stone used for such has been released to us, and is in a secure place. I'll be taking you there after this meeting. As for your two," he looked at Selene and myself. "I'd like you to see if you can come up with a way to transport a portal, assembled or not, through another. If it isn't possible, that's fine, but our hope is that it will be, as that will simplify things greatly. Once you've done that we'll need one to test, and then ship out. You two will be on that project for the time being."

We split to go about our assigned tasks. I thought as we walked down the hall; discussion of important projects wasn't allowed outside of rooms, so I had time. I realized that while I'd been told we had a place, we weren't told where. A quick scan of the papers revealed that it hadn't been there either. That was no mistake, we wouldn't be told until we needed to be.