Unnatural Conduct

Chapter 14

"I don't have any books on portal weaving. No one knows how it works, so you've got to figure it out for yourself," said Alex, the two of us sitting in a spare room of the tremendous castle, Hazel standing guard outside the door.

I'd since learned that I'd only been out for a few hours, and I'd spent the last thirty minutes or so trying to master the art of portal weaving... or at least get it started.

I nodded absently in response to Alex's statement, only barely hearing it. I was too focused on the bare stone wall that lay before me, too focused on trying to weave a portal out of seemingly nothing.

I felt sweat begin to form on my brow, and I wiped it off with the back of my hand. I didn't know why trying to pull at the strings that made up the world's elements was so exhausting, but it was. It was making me extremely hungry as well, and I was soon ordering Alex to get me some food. He'd sent out for a servant who brought back a large banquet of food, and I grabbed the first thing my hand came across, eyes never once leaving the blank canvas of stone before me.

As I took a bite out of what I soon realized was a loaf of bread, I began to concentrate on pulling an individual string of water from the air. I muttered a low incantation, and a string of water appeared before me.

Remembering that the portal to get to the realm I was currently in had been made by altering these strings, I struggled to remember the language. When I was fairly certain I remembered the language, I spoke a series of syllables, the sounds morphing into a series of unearthly words.

The string of water morphed, and then became... something else entirely. It was a black strand, similar to the one that had made up the portal to get to this realm.

I heard Alex's sharp intake of breath as he beheld the strand of darkness, seemingly embedded in the castle wall and radiating an eerie glow of its own.

Remembering what my destination was, I tried speaking the realm's name into the folds of the string. The blackness flared brightly, becoming a brilliant, blinding yellow that engulfed the room in its light for a moment before turning dark again.

"What... what just happened?" Alex finally asked, tired of being kept in the dark.

I shrugged. "Not sure, to be honest. I don't really know what I'm doing, but... Well, if it did what I think it did, then I should have just made a tiny string of the immense portal to take us to Igola."

He didn't seem to understand my logic, so he just slumped back in the chair he currently occupied, began to work on what looked like a plate of meat, and let me continue on with my work... and my feasting.

I finished the bread and grabbed for the next food within reach before working on the next strand of the portal. I alternated the strands each time, switching out between water, then fire, then a strand of air, and then one of earth.

Once I made them into portal strands, I spoke the destination name into all of them, and they flared before turning to the original color.

After what seemed like a lifetime, I had what I assumed to be a complete portal staring back at me, the last few words I recited coming out slowly as I fought a yawn. Gods, was I exhausted.

I thought about what Hazel had said, about my power having a limit. I seemed to be at that limit right now, if my physique was any measure.

Too tired to be excited, I put a shield of air over the portal, just in case something from the other side decided to come crashing through. If there even was an other side. I still didn't know if I'd woven the portal correctly, and I didn't plan on discovering that at the moment.