Mage Among Superheroes

It certainly seemed that the tome from Zenfer was not trapped, but I would still be waiting a few days so any potential temporary enchantments wore off. There were plenty of other things to be doing, like returning Sir Kalman home after he delivered the gift. The only question was what Midnight and I would be doing there. He wanted us to help him bring some paladins to another world, so that they could unlock training potential. It might make them targets, but they were already working with others who would be seen as threats by… whoever it was that didn’t want people to be effective.

There had been a suggestion from Midnight that we bring people to Celmoth, as they would only be entering and then immediately returning. But that had all sorts of other complications. Would it create more connections between worlds? Would someone set their sights on Celmoth? From what I’d heard of their advanced technology that might be foolish, but it would still be something we didn’t want to cause.

The easiest thing should be interplanar travel within those planes connected to my old world. I had studied quite a few of them, and seen a couple. The old plane where Comghall and the ancient orcs were… didn’t count. Though I should be able to make that Gate pretty consistently, they had made their choice for isolation and I wanted to respect that.

“The biggest issue,” I explained to Sir Kalman, “Is we don’t know exactly how long of an exposure you need. From Earth, portal powers popped up from people who were simply next to the portals for a few minutes. But Ceira and Jerome only properly unlocked classes after being on the other side for a longer time. It’s difficult to say if it’s immediate or not.”

“I see,” Sir Kalman nodded. “Which means… we’ll have to stay for a while?”

“I’d suggest a few hours, at least. Midnight and I will potentially need time to recover mana, and it would be better to not have to return. We don’t have very many samples for people with classes unlocking the ability to grow through training, except where it was long term. Jerome was probably the shortest, and it was more than a few hours.”

“Perhaps overnight, then?” Sir Kalman said.

“In that case,” Midnight joined in. “We’d want to go somewhere relatively safe. What’s the least dangerous plane you know of?” he asked.

“Hmm,” I frowned. “That depends on your definitions, I suppose. The elemental planes… have the trouble of being rather unsurvivable, except for air if I recall correctly. I can cast Water Breathing, but I suspect you’d want to take more than a couple people along so the plane of water is out. Fire is most straightforwardly deadly, and earth… we might end up in an unstable cavern.”

“Not my idea of a good time, that last one,” Sir Kalman said. “Might be why I was never much for mining. So about this plane of air, what’s there?”

“Air,” I said. “And very little else, except creatures of air.”

“So you’re saying… we’d be up in the air, falling forever?”

I frowned. “I think you’d… be able to fly.”

Sir Kalman nodded. “Let’s say that’s true. What about the natives? They friendly?”

“Wild elementals aren’t… unfriendly. But they can certainly be dangerous.”

“And they’d be able to see us from miles off. More, perhaps. Nothing in the way but open air. So anything that wouldn’t like us could easily spot us.”

“That doesn’t sound great,” I admitted.

Sir Kalman nodded. “My men and I are up for a fight, if need be, but I imagine it would be quite different to do so in such a place. Why not go somewhere more pleasant, like one of the heavens?”

“Why indeed,” I said. “Mostly that if anyone there does take issue with our presence, they’ll be quite dangerous. Outsiders are not to be trifled with. And I’d rather not bump into the domains of any deities.”

“Wait hold on,” Midnight interrupted. “You’re saying we can just go to… heaven? And then we might bump into God?”

“No,” I shook my head. “Just one of the heavens, and a god. Also, most likely we wouldn’t see them. They might not even be real.”

“Turlough,” Sir Kalman cautioned. “I’d be careful where you say that.”

I shrugged. “I can say confidently that those gods, such as they are, have no domain in this world. I have not investigated gods in this world. Either way, I’d rather not unintentionally intrude into the domain of a deity.”

“You can’t,” Sir Kalman said. “And lest you forget, not all deities are the sort that reside in the heavens.”

“I changed my mind,” I said quickly. “I’m totally uninterested in interplanar travel within that sphere and we should instead go to Celmoth.”

Sir Kalman shook his head. “You’ll want to consider it eventually. Even though they mostly stay out of the affairs of mortals, the gods would have great wisdom to share.”

I pondered. “Or the gods could be involved in this whole plan,” I said. “That of keeping particular growth methods out of people’s hands.”

“If that were the case, our struggle would be pointless,” Sir Kalman said. “They could simply wipe us out.”

“Or they’re not as strong as they want people to think.”

Sir Kalman frowned. “Why are you so against the gods?”

“I just don’t get the point of being involved with entities like that. The only thing they’ve ever done for me is give me Curse of the Barbarian.”

“And how’s that working out for you lately?” he asked.

“... Great, actually. But that’s not the point.”

“It could be,” he replied. “But I must admit I would be hesitant to seek out any of the gods without a proper reason, or an invitation of some sort. However, I can say that should you attempt to enter one of their domains unwelcomed, you will know and find yourself rejected.”

“So they have anti-Gate magic,” I nodded.

“It is the power of their domains,” he said.

“We need to get more widespread versions of that here,” I pondered. I knew that certain facilities- usually those manned by supers, and high security things such as bank vaults, were protected against portals and teleportation. Those protections were meant for supers, but they still worked against magic. I knew that, because the Brigade had me test some of their defenses.

“We should probably let people know we’re going to be gone,” Midnight said.

I nodded. The Brigade knew I would be busy with Sir Kalman for part of the day, but this could easily stretch into and throughout tomorrow. “Are all of those you wish to bring stationed at your headquarters?” I asked Sir Kalman.

“Not even close. But I think you’ll have more than enough. After all, how many people can pass through a Gate comfortably?”

“Well… currently? Like… ten to sixty,” I said.

He raised an eyebrow. “That’s a big gap.”

“Depends on how easy it is to make a Gate somewhere. At maximum size, it’s somewhere around fourteen feet wide and lasts about a minute. You could easily fit people through three wide. Or it could be barely four or five feet wide and last half a minute, or twenty seconds. You might have to rush through for ten, at that point.”

He nodded. “I suppose you’ve seen more of it than myself. Travel to that Extra place looks to be quite stable.”

“That’s the point,” I nodded. “But a random plane? We have to test. I’d have to go through with you for safety if you’re staying. And you couldn’t just have people standing by for hours expecting to be the next batch.”

“Aye, I understand,” Sir Kalman said. “I have plenty of good folk to pick from for a journey. And I suppose we should see whether it works properly with one batch before causing too much ruckus. People shouldn’t be able to monitor portals in and out of our grounds easily, but there’s no saying for sure.

I nodded. “Depending on whether it works properly, we can plan the next steps for later.” With this and the potential connections to Celmoth… it seemed I wasn’t going to be getting out of practice with Gate anytime soon.

-----

Malaliel happened to be present as we passed through the lobby of Extra, so we went up to greet her. “Good afternoon, Malaliel,” I said.

“And to you, Mage,” she said, using my super name since I was in uniform. “You are bringing your friend back home?”

“Yep. And then we might go see some other angels.”

“... I see,” she said.

“What?” I asked. “Don’t believe me?”

“It is rather outlandish to say.”

“Yeah, but you know I’m telling the truth.”

“I don’t, actually. You have a strange lack of aura about you.”

“... oh yeah,” I said. “I guess that makes sense. I don’t mind if you can truthread me, but this is for the sake of avoiding certain sorts of danger.”

The angel nodded. “That, I do understand. But it still makes me wonder if your unflappable and outlandish honesty might be compromised by my inability to read you.”

I frowned for a moment. Then I dismantled Nondetection. “I probably won’t see angels later. But I might, since we could be going to the heavens.”

Malaliel sighed. “I didn’t mean to make you dismantle your wards. I can tell they took some effort to put into place.”

“It’s like an hour of regeneration,” I said. “A little bit less, maybe. But I’d rather have you believe me.”

“I already did,” she said. “Because in addition to my own abilities, you’re a poor liar. Though obviously that wasn’t something I would have known when we first met.”

“Hey, I’ve… successfully lied about things before,” I replied. “I think.”

She chuckled. “Well, I probably shouldn’t hold you long. You have business to attend to.”

“You’re not interested in the angels I might meet?”

“Would you be interested if I spoke of orcs from whence I came?”

I tilted my head. “... Maybe?”

“And my answer would be much the same,” she replied. “Without meeting them, they are simply another unknown group of people. Sharing a name and physical features tells me little.”

“They should be the good sort,” I said. “Certainly better than the ones from Rositsa’s world.”

“You see? You are already aware of angels whose behaviors I find intolerable. That woman is a model citizen that merely happens to be a vampire. And yet they would wipe the whole world of her kind. In a quite disruptive manner, I might add. Eternal sunlight isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Worlds not meant to sustain such a thing may have plants shrivel and die as the world grows hotter and hotter, until all life goes up in flames or all magic is drained from the world.”

“... you think that happened?” I asked.

“One would hope that they would cease their foolishness before wiping out those they professed to protect,” Malaliel shrugged. “But we are not aware of any further contact with that world, either through refugees or any other sort.”

-----

“Have you ever met an angel?” I asked Sir Kalman. “Aside from Malaliel, obviously.”

“I have not,” Sir Kalman admitted. “Nor any of their associated kin. Even so, we have records of their goodness. Their kindness and mercy tempering their great power.”

“What goodness?” I asked. “Good for humans, elves, and dwarves? Would they feel the same about orcs?”

“I should hope so,” he said. “As long as they’re as reasonable as yourself and those few among Order of the Lion.”

“What about Celmothians?” Midnight asked.

“There’s no reason for them to dislike you,” Sir Kalman said. “People with the form of animals are not unheard of here. And if they were to cause trouble, the rest of us would stand with you as much as we would Turlough.”

I nodded. “As reassured as I am by your words, I’m still going to make sure we’re full on mana before we go, so we have enough to immediately come back if things aren’t looking good.” Ultimately, we were still going to go to one of the heavens. I’d seen a glimpse of one, I thought, though one of Doctor Doomsday’s portals. And if I tied it to what I knew of the various planes, I should be able to end up somewhere appropriate.