Chapter Five – The portal’s imminent reopening
The portal would open on the summer solstice. In Beldur preparations began slowly during the spring equinox, ramping up as the summer approached. The portal always appeared at the same place. Where it would lead each year was the great mystery.
The Riddari, the elite warriors of Beldur’s military were in charge of the portal defenses. Though it was rare for the portal to bridge to a hostile plane – history had shown it to be inevitable. At times the Riddari’s zeal was inconvenient; the merchants, academics, and diplomats all understood the necessity of their work.
Andin spent his spring at the College training with the staff and teaching an introductory class for alternative elemental use. Citizens of a plane always practiced the magic of their native land, it was necessary for their survival – and a strong driver of solidarity.
Choosing your second element was the impossible student’s decision; the human spirit can only devote itself fully to two elements. Andin’s introductory class helped his younger students explore the basic spells and traits of each element. Such a decision was never taken lightly and often many students graduated with no alternate element chosen.
His skittish students shuffled in. They were first years and had never seen the prince before. They arranged themselves neatly at their desks. The overflow stood at the back. “Hello I am Prince Andin – this is Introduction to Alternative magics block A.”
Andin scanned the crowded classroom. “If you’re not on my roster…” Andin summoned one of his sickles with as much violence as he could manage, “Get out.” Half of the classroom vanished. Andin shut the door behind a giggling little girl running to her actual class.
“Once again, welcome; by the end of this semester each of you will be able to cast a basic manipulative spell of each of the elements – or you’ll fail the class.” Andin enjoyed scaring his students the first few days, it made the rest of the semester go much more smoothly. “Life, death, light, fire, water, wind, lightning, and earth; those are the eight primary elements – seven of which we can use in practice.”
Andin continued, “Does anyone know which we cannot use and why?” An eager student raised his hand. “Go ahead,” Andin looked to him. “Life magic sir, because only the three first gods together could truly use life magic,” said the young boy. “Correct,” said Andin.
He continued the lecture explaining the course schedule and the testing standards. He concluded the class with a simple demonstration of the first element they would be learning, light. His classroom emptied and refilled twice more.
After his morning lessons were over Andin headed to professor Nikka’s office to continue his own practice of earth magic. His research with Svoi and the rest of the staff was not as physically rigorous as the hands-on training at the Void Scar – but much more thought provoking.
The purpose of the College was twofold; educate the youth and explore and study the magical sciences. Under the leadership of Headmaster Svoi, the College consistently stood at the forefront of magical learning in the civilized planes.
As the semester ticked on Andin and his student’s abilities continued to increase. He had taken his class outdoors to practice a basic lightning manipulation. Andin addressed his class, “As lightning discharges from one Vangraph device to the other you will pull a small fragment into your hand, control the ball for twenty seconds, and then throw it into the target here.” Andin raised a square of stone target out of the earth.
Many of his students were mildly electrocuted. Lightning magic, though powerful, was tricky to control. After failing his second attempt, one of Andin’s students became visibly frustrated. “Remember, you cannot muscle it into submission – you have to react to it; feel where it wants to jump to.” The boy didn’t want to fail in front of the prince; he returned to the line and refocused.
The nine day spring recess gave Andin a chance to return to Caldvik. The ride from the College to the capital was particularly beautiful – Andin’s steamcycle ate through the miles. His father had returned earlier to oversee the portal site. Andin headed there first, “Hello father,” Andin smiled.
“The prodigal son returns, how are your little first years?” asked Bellos.
“The future of Beldur is in good hands,” stated Andin proudly. Bellos face twitched for just a moment, revealing his concern for the future. Andin picked up on it but continued the conversation, “How are preparations going?”
The pair began walking around the defensive structures circling the portal site. “Quite good this year – Baron Breer is overseeing the Riddari’s work.”
Andin gripped the hard steel of one of the ballistae, “No steam launchers?” His question was joking, while developing his steamcycle Andin and Councilman Bostil created a powerful yet comically unwieldy weapon they dubbed the Steam-Demon.
Bellos laughed, “Had I known you wished for Beldur’s downfall I would have tossed you into the void myself.”
The three batteries of ballistae were positioned precisely in an arc around the portal. The artillery would batter the portal while the infantry mopped up any stragglers. Each layer of the defenses had a secondary and tertiary backup for extra measure. “Have they been calibrated and aligned?” Bellos asked the baron who had now joined their party.
“Batteries one and two are prepared Lord Bellos; the third will be calibrated after the black-steel barricades are installed around the portal,” answered the baron.
“Do you have an earth user helping you anchor the barricades?” asked Andin.
“We have a few Prince Andin, but would be grateful for any assistance,” answered the baron.
Andin nodded and left the group to help anchor the portable walls which would be used to funnel any enemies into a deadly crossfire. “Council meeting at four this afternoon son,” shouted Bellos.
“Yes father,” Andin acknowledged. He descended the slope of earth ringing the portal and began helping the Riddari.
The barricades were made from the famous Beldurian black-steel, an invention of Bellos and Svoi’s great grandfather. The metallurgy of Beldur knew no rival; the lightning wielding Drojja could create stronger alloys, but nothing as enduring as black-steel.
When the portal opened to other civilized planes, the black-steel was an invaluable trading commodity for Beldur. Andin thought of its marvel as he cleared shafts into the ground with the other mage. The work went by quickly with two earth users, especially one as skilled as Andin. Soon the barricades were positioned and anchored correctly.
Andin left the portal site to unpack the few belongings he had brought from the College to his room in the palace. He relaxed on his bed waiting for the council meeting. Soon enough his chronometer whirred whimsically indicating it was ten minutes to four. He closed his book and headed to the council chamber.
Lord Bellos was skimming the report summaries from the four quarters. Most of the other council members had already arrived. Svoi stood next to Bellos taking notes on the fire god’s recommendations.
Andin patted the pair on their shoulders, “Headmaster if I knew you were coming to Caldvik I would have suggested we travel together.”
Svoi looked back at Andin, “I left much later than you did; besides my old pony would only slow you down.”
Andin went over to Councilman Bostil, “Did you examine the cartographer data yet?”
Bostil’s face lit up, “Prince Andin! I’ve run the calculations countless times, unless there was some unknown interference I’m certain that the object picked up on the cartographer was indeed another landmass – maybe a fully-fledged plane.”
“Why haven’t we seen this sort of thing before?” asked Andin.
“I couldn’t say, but I did manage to get the Riddari to lend me two of their knights to accompany me for more tests,” answered Bostil with even more excitement in his voice.
Andin was intrigued, “What did you find?”
Bostil hushed himself, “The data woul
d have been even more convincing if I had managed to collect from the same site as you; unfortunately I only had the Riddari escort for a week.” Bostil continued, “I broke the cartographer using only fire magic, but I brought also an resonance-sensor.”
Andin looked confused, “A what?”
Bostil explained, “It’s the device we use in wild planes to find crystals suitable to become energy prisms, it’s horribly imprecise but with some clever modifications its detection range can be greatly increased.” Bostil looked around the council chamber, “I picked up a faint signal, one coming from the same direction as the object you detected – Andin the data is beginning to support my hypothesis.”
“Let’s begin shall we?” ordered Lord Bellos. Andin’s conversation was cut short; he took his seat at his father’s side. Lord Bellos began covering the various discussion points quickly; often making recommendations, never ordering changes directly.
Andin sensed a subtle feeling of apprehension in the council. The same creeping dread Bellos, Andin, and Svoi had felt near the portal was now palpable to the rest of the council. No one wished to discuss it, the time before the portal opening was always one of high tension. It was critical to maintain a level head, as fear poisons the mind.
After the meeting Andin and Svoi followed Lord Bellos to his chamber. “Father – the dark feeling near the portal, it’s getting stronger; I can sometimes feel it from the College,” said Andin.
“I know son, Svoi and I have discussed this as well, but until we know what forces are moving in the shadows we cannot respond irrationally,” Bellos knew what to say to calm his son.
Svoi chimed in, “Milord let us help you – together the three of us could challenge any foe…”
Bellos cut him off, “This isn’t just any foe Svoi, this is something sinister, something hidden, something none of us can yet comprehend – we must temper ourselves to prepare for the coming storm.”
Svoi bowed deeply, “Of course milord.” Andin bowed as well and left Bellos’ chamber.
“Son,” said Bellos. Andin stopped and returned to his father’s chamber.
“Yes father?” Andin asked.
“I had another dream,” said Bellos distressingly. Andin steeled himself. Bellos pulled something from his tunic, “Prepare yourself, we may get lucky with this next portal opening.”
He gave the object to his son. It was the same crystal he had stolen from the Plane of Light. It was still as dull as when he stole it, but with a new unusual weightlessness to it. “What does this do?” asked Andin.
“We’ll need the portal open to be sure,” answered Bellos.