Wielder

Chapter 5 - The Portal

"Why? So we would serve as a distraction long enough for you to make a get away?"

"They would have realized soon enough that you had nothing to do with me," Darrel nodded. "They would have sent you home and you would have been no worse for wear. And I would have been well on my way to the next world by now.

"But, no. You just had to escape. And now, they've put the whole city on high alert. All the portals out of here are on lock down. I'm stuck here - you're stuck here – until they find us. And they will find us, now that you've led them here. Thanks a lot."

"They we're trying to kill us!" Alie interjected. "And we weren't followed. I was watching for that."

Darrel's jaw tightened, nearing the end of his patience. "Doesn't matter. They're looking for high concentrations of magic. For some reason, magic clings to you like paper clips on a magnet. Enough that it served as the perfect decoy for the rock in my bag. But now, you're here, and the rock's here, and we're all just one big magic target waiting to be struck."

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have stolen it, then," Michael said flatly.

Darrel turned his icy gaze toward him. "How I got it is none of your business."

"It is when I'm being unjustly accused of committing your crime," Michael snapped back.

"Why don't you just leave it somewhere?" Alie asked, her voice soft and wary.

"Because it's going to make me filthy rich," Darrel said.

Alie frowned, struggling to understand his selfishness. "Money won't do you any good if you're dead."

"She has a point," Michael smirked.

"The magic seekers won't kill you," Darrel sighed heavily. "They'll just trap you."

"What about the plasma guns?" Michael asked.

Darrel opened his mouth, thought a moment, and closed it again. "They shot at you?"

"Multiple times," Alie nodded. "If it weren't for the magic, we'd be toast."

A shadow passed over the thief's face. The anger in his eyes cooled, but was quickly replaced by fear. "Well, that changes things."

"How?" Michael demanded.

"I was just going to wait out their search," Darrel explained slowly. "Stash my bag, hole up somewhere, give them some false leads, make them think I'd already left. But if they want us dead, then we can't risk sticking around. The teams they send when they're out for blood are way more fierce than the others. We'd be tracked down in no time."

"But you said we can't leave because all the portals are blocked," Alie reminded.

Darrel's face paled. "Well... All but one."

Michael had a feeling he wasn't going to like the reason there was still one avenue out of town available, but he had to ask anyway. "What's special about that one?"

"It leads to a dying world," Darrel explained. "It's just a monster-infested wasteland, now. The world's magic started getting corrupted, and it leeched out through the portal. It even caused a whole shop to disintegrate. People got scared and left. That's why this whole block is quartered off."

Alie paled, looking down the barren streets. "You mean, we're close to the portal? Is it going to destroy us, too?"

"Not unless you absorb the corrupted magic. It's fine for now, though."

Michael pinched the bridge of his nose to ease the stress-induced headache that was starting to form. "So, our options are to hide out in a dying, monster-infested world and hope we don't absorb its magic, or stay in the city with the over-zealous authorities and hope we don't get killed?"