Chapter Thirty~two

A Likely Theory

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“I read over your documentation last night,” Kazia said to Master Giao.

They had wheeled the portal out into a clear space of the laboratory and stood studying it.

“If I understand, the user doesn't have to be adept at casting portals –obviously, since I cannot- but these elements laced into this wiring around the frame will amplify and direct any ethereal energy in the user?”

“Yes,” Master Giao confirmed.

“Could a layperson use this then?”

“It's possible. If the affinity were strong enough, it should only take a bit of ethereal energy to be amplified by the Artifact.”

“So, although I was not actively directing any energy when it took me, it probably sparked off of my latent energy.”

“A likely theory.”

“Well,” Kazia said, “when it happened, I had been examining Lord Meratha's Artifact, and had gotten some of the potion on my hand. His potion contains Blood of the Maker, so my theory is that the blood is the key, the blood... of the subject in question.

I don't suppose you would have a sample of your wife's blood. It's not the sort of thing one just has, usually”

“I do, of a kind,” Master Giao said. “It is only a very little. Our people have a coming of age ceremony in which one is nicked with a silver dagger, the warrior's first blooding. The dagger is kept as a relic and I have hers in my possession.

I had thought to use it in the portal for Blood of One the Maker Loves, but I didn't think it would work. It is many decades old, and I didn't want to destroy it for nothing.”

“I understand,” Kazia said. “Well, I'll test my theory and we'll verify that it is the blood. If it works again, then we'll try all the ingredients of the potion isolated to rule them out. I do think the blood is most likely though.”

“So you're just going to go through and,” Master Giao made a dropping motion with both hands, “plop down in front of him?”

“Mistress Amelys is conspiring with us. She is occupying him in the bailey so I that don't appear in his private rooms again.”

“I must say, Lady Kazia, that you are surprisingly nonplussed about this. Not many would be.”

“Lord Meratha is simply a given in my experiment, Master Giao,” Kazia replied coolly. “If the portal takes me to him, I will use that to discover how it will take you to your wife.”

“Mmm.”

“Let's give it a try.”

Kazia removed the cartridge from the watch part of the transmitter and smeared a bit of the potion on a fingertip. She went to the portal and hovered her hand near it.

“And...” she grasped the frame.

Nothing happened.

She looked at Master Giao.

“Perhaps it is broken again?” he asked.

Kazia grasped the frame with both hands.

She did not tell Master Giao what she was doing as she mentally felt down into the portal's works.

She hadn't examined it closely before it took her to Kelvaran's room, but compared to the schematics in the documentation, all seemed as it should be now. Nothing seemed damaged or amiss.

“We've moved it,” she said. “Let's take it back where it was.”

They wheeled the portal back into the corner and replaced it next to the transmitter.

“Alright, it was here, and I was here. I opened the watch, and got the potion on my hand. Then I grabbed the frame... no. Then I examined the receiver.”

Kazia placed her hand on the receiver, the impression of Kelvaran immediately beginning to seep into her psyche.

“Yes, and then I grabbed...”

That sense of nothingness took hold of Kazia, plunging her into darkness, and then she was sitting on the grass in the bailey.

Amelys and Kelvaran sat on a bench nearby, both faced away from her, but Amelys glanced at Kazia over Kelvaran's shoulder as she stood up and ran back to the Alchemists' tower.

 

 

“Is something wrong?” Kelvaran asked.

“No, nothing,” Amelys answered. “I was just lost in thought. I know that something must be done about Halany, I only wish it wasn't you who had to do it.”

“I am the best positioned.”

“I know, I know. But surely not without the transmitter? If Kazia can't make it work...”

“Are you certain she is not sabotaging the effort?”

“Are you still on about that?” Amelys sighed. “Surely you can't still think the worst of her, in light of...”

“Let's please not speak of it,” Kelvaran insisted. “I don't know what to think of that. She could just be very clever. You said she was the best with the Artifacts, that she could make it work, and I have seen some of the certain failures she's managed to revive. So, why not the transmitter? What could be the delay?”

“I said that if the concept is possible that she could make it work. I'll remind you that it is your invention, and you couldn't make it work yourself.”

Amelys shivered a bit in the crisp air and pulled her shawl more closely about her.

“Shall we go inside?” Kelvaran asked.

“No, no,” Amelys answered. “Look, a bit of sun is coming out.”

 

Kazia reached her lab again, winded from running up all the stairs.

“Well,” she told Master Giao, “if I do that a few more times I shall certainly be fit by the end of the day.”

“So it was the Artifact, then, and not the blood?” he asked.

“So it seems. Let me try something else.”

She picked up a finished Artifact from the shelf of completed projects and touched the frame again.

Nothing.

“For control,” she said. “I wanted to make sure it wasn't only Lord Meratha's Artifact. You know, you've designed this to a specific action, but if we could get it working more generally - take someone anywhere they wanted to go – this could be the invention of the century.”

“Perhaps,” Master Giao said sadly. “I don't care about that.”

“I know.”

“Lord Meratha would, I think. He is jealous that he can't be part of this.”

“Well, he can't,” Kazia said, “and it's his own fault. If he could behave in a more gentlemanly fashion toward me, then perhaps I would allow it.”

Master Giao laughed, then grew serious again.

“He is considerably adept at portals, and his insight into them could be very useful.”

“Perhaps,” Kazia conceded. “I could have my Apprentice copy your documentation and pass it to him. Speaking of - if you see her - please don't mention the more... personal details of this venture, on my part. There is a reason I've given her this afternoon off.”

“Of course,” he agreed.

“So,” Kazia said, turning back to business, “we are fairly certain that it is not the blood, but the Artifact, one of the subject's making. Master Giao, is your wife an Alchemist? Would you have any Artifacts of her making?”

“She is not,” he answered, crestfallen.

Kazia took a moment to consider.

“Do you have anything of your wife's making? Anything at all – a handicraft, perhaps, anything of that sort?”

“That I do,” he said, nodding.

“Let me try something else.”

Kazia went to the transmitter and began unwiring the battery.

“This battery is of Lord Meratha's making, but it contains no magic itself,” she told him. “Anything that anyone creates, whether Alchemist or layperson, whether intended for magic or no, contains a trace of the maker's ethereal energy.”

She pulled the battery free and placed it on a smaller table, nearby but away from the transmitter.

“I was thinking,” said Master Giao. “For Lord Meratha's transmitter, have you tried Blood of One who Loves the Maker? You do have a plentiful supply of that.”

Kazia froze.

“You mean me? Wouldn't that be... unseemly? I could ask Mistress Amelys. She loves him.”

“You would bleed an old woman before yourself?” Master Giao chided, laughing.

“I guess I haven't fully accepted... it's not easy.”

“I can imagine.”

“It's a good thought though,” Kazia said. “I suppose I'll have to consider it. Now, let's try the battery.”

She placed one hand on the battery, braced herself, and grasped the frame.

She didn't fall this time when she came out on the bailey. She was a bit closer to the bench, though, and Amelys shot her a look of alarm as she hastily turned back to the tower.

 

 

“Mistress?” Kelvaran said.

He turned and looked around, but there was nothing there.

“Sir Palanaida!” Amelys called.

Turning back, Kelvaran spotted Eaphan approaching.

“Mistress Thanelin,” Eaphan said, “I do hope the day is finding you well?”

“Very well, thank you,” Amelys answered.

“And you, Kel?” Eaphan extended a hand and Kelvaran shook it heartily.

“Quite so, Eaphan,” Kelvaran answered. “Did you find the Artifacts?”

“I did. Already loaded up, and thank you again. You have been most helpful.”

 

 

Kazia had to sit a moment when she returned to the lab. She remembered Madame Brandra saying how she could do with fewer stairs, and Kazia could not agree with the sentiment more.

“Well,” she said once she'd caught her breath, “we appear to have the answer. My only pause now is that the portal appears to be a one way trip. How will you return?”

“I'm not worried about that,” said Master Giao. “I'll be with her, and we'll find our way back here.”

“You'll have to go very well prepared,” she said. “You have no idea where it will turn you out. Money to buy passage home. Perhaps a weapon?”

“I will take all considerations,” he assured her. “But I would try it this minute if I had something of her creation in my hand.”

“I do wish you would wait until we can tinker with it more and find a way to make it return.”

“That could take another lifetime,” he said. “Which I do not have.”

“You're probably right. Let's at least sleep on it tonight,” Kazia said. “Make your preparations. I will be here when you're ready.”

“Agreed.”

 

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