Melody of Mana

"Come in," a small voice said after I knocked on the door.

What I found after opening it was a small bedroom, it was nice, but simple, the bed and small desk taking up most of it. Selene looked to have just finished eating and stood as she saw us enter, rushing over and grabbing me in a tight hug.

"You're here," she said, almost sobbing. "They told me you left me, that you didn't care about me."

Carefully I wrapped her up, returning the embrace. "I didn't know they had you until I got back to civilization. Soon as we knew they sent the army to come and save you. If I'd known..."

I didn't know what I would have done. It would be nice to say that I would have saved her, but truth be told I'd barely made it out myself. She needed someone to reassure her though, to let her loose everything she'd felt. Nobody could really understand, could truly know how she felt, but we could be there for her while she tried to recover.

"Wait, how are you here?" She asked. "They just let you run back?"

"No, when the emperor heard about the portal he sent a team out to investigate as quickly as he could. I came along to try and find out what was going on."

She looked a little off-put that I'd not come for her, but for the item she'd made, but then something else seemed to click. "Then I can go home?"

"Of course, the portal's up and we can get you back when you're ready."

At that statement she started crying in earnest. I sat with her on the bed while she let it all out. It felt like patience was going to be key here, and I needed to let her find somewhere she could feel safe. I had no idea if that was the right or wrong decision, but it was the best I had for the moment.

"I-I'd like to go now," she said when the tears finally stopped, it had been several minutes and we'd ended up sitting on her bed while she let herself go.

"Alright, do you have anything here you need to pack up?" When she shook her head I continued. "Think you can answer me a couple of questions while we walk?"

I wasn't qualified for this, but I did need information. As we stood and headed towards the portal I made a brief stop to gather up my papers before we could continue, unfortunately some of the many guards that had been sent with me joined us soon as we made it there.

"Who are?" Selene began when she saw them, her grip on my arm tightening a bit.

"Guards, to make sure we get back safe," I responded, giving them a motion to keep back a bit.

"Right, right, you said you had questions?"

"Yes, just confirmation, you said you made them three sets of gates?" I asked.

She nodded, "Yes."

"And this was the sequence you used?" I passed over a sheet with the written code.

"Yeah, they wanted it fast. I didn't want to Alana, but, but..." she started shaking once again, and I could see the tears in her eyes. "He was a monster, a real monster. I had to, I had to..."

Before she could break down completely I began to spoke. "It's okay, you're safe, nobody here is going to hurt you. The man, do you know his name?"

She shook her head. "He looked like a snake, like a viper in human skin."

That description rang all kinds of bells. I'd met one of the enforcers for the old royal family, and I could soundly believe that that man had both survived, and was more than capable of torture. The memory of meeting him after escaping the underground sent shivers up my spine.

"Did he?" She asked, looking at me.

"I think I know who you're talking about," I said.

"He said things, about how you'd abandoned me, about how they'd get you back even though you ran away, about all the things he'd do to get you to talk. As he was doing them to me," she barely whispered the last part.

Behind her I could see Ulanion, his knuckles were white as he death-gripped his sword, and the look of fury on his face would have sent more than one person fleeing alone. I gave him a quick glare. If Selene saw that it would be terrible, and he quickly schooled his face, nodding.

"No one is going to hurt you Selene, you're safe. Those gates you made them may well kill the bastard too." That got me a weak chuckle from the girl.

"I hope so," she said. She knew as well as I how dangerous gates like that might be.

"Are you ready?" She looked up and realized that as we'd talked and walked we'd finally made it to our destination.

It took me less than an hour after hearing what she'd said to prepare my formal report. I got the feeling the message that I'd sent to tell Emperor Durin had basically been turned right around to tell me to report to him with haste. The meeting room I was ordered to was quickly filling with a few of the individuals that were both stationed here and had relevant information.

Everyone stood as he entered, but we were all quickly motioned to sit. The emperor was in a lighter armor, still his standard black, and looked like he'd been stressed the whole time I was gone.

"Sit, good news I hope?" He said as he took his place, looking at me.

"Sort of, we know they have two more sets of gates, the details on them were in the report. I'm worried that they're mental though, the men who are using them. The lack of any safeguard is bad for both us and them."

"Could you explain?" One of the administrators asked.

"Happily. If you placed one of the gates we use underwater, the water wouldn't pass through. I don't know if there is that in the original design or not, but we put it there. There are also shutoffs, and protections if something is moving through. The gates aren't instant, even though it may feel like that, there is a delay, ours have a small mana supply to keep them going for a few seconds to let things out, theirs don't. There's also the fact that if you put your arm in one of our gates and turned it off, the whole thing would try to get you out of it, it's made to, with theirs... honestly I don't know what would happen." I could go on for days about this, protections for these were most of what I did.

"Those aren't built into the sequences already?" Emperor Durin asked.

"I have no idea if they are or not, since how the sequence works is a bit... unknown, just that it does. Would you, now knowing that, be willing to exclude them though? There are a lot on Ristolian's gates that are similar to ours, at least we think so, so either he was as paranoid as we are, or they aren't."

"Nobody tested that?" An outraged administrator asked.

"We've been trying to get a safe transport network up. That project has been very rushed, but since we were the only ones making them, there was no need to test dangerous models for safety. Now I would like to." I looked at the emperor, since we'd need his permission for that.

"I will of course consider that part of this investigation, and I believe I've already given you permission to do what you needed for that." He didn't want it spread that I had a blank check, but if he was willing to extend that I'd take it. "For now, can they make more?"

"All indications point to no. That is the best piece of news." That got me a couple of nods, but the man who'd been questioning me had other thoughts.

"I hear that you destroyed the captured gate, would you care to explain yourself?" He asked, as if I'd done any wrong.

"Not really, since it should be clear from the explanation I've already given, but if you need it, fine. There was no way to keep it turned off, no way to stop them from returning through it, no way to do anything if they put a large mana supply on it and dropped it in the ocean. It was a safety hazard to not only the men I'd taken with me to investigate, but everyone in that city. I suspect they'd destroyed the other side anyway, but would you be willing to keep such a thing around?" The man flinched back at the acid in my voice.

"Her decision was the correct one. Both of you should calm yourselves though, it's clear we're all stressed, and forgetting where our enemies lie." At the emperor's words both of us had to bow our heads.

"My apologies, the emperor placed his trust in you for this, and I shouldn't have questioned your judgment," the pencil-pusher said.

"And mine, this day has been... trying, and I lost my temper." I still wanted to punch the man, but we needed to all work together, and cursing him out wouldn't help in either the short or long run.

Soon everyone was dismissed, and soon only myself and the emperor were left. He seemed to understand that I wanted to speak with him.

"Something else?" He said.

"Something personal, Selene is... not extremely close, but a friend. Will you see to it that she's taken care of?" I asked.

"I don't abandon my people when they get hurt Alana; she'll get what help I can offer her. The Orders will want to speak to her too, and they might well have someone better who can. We'll let her decide what she wants I think." He shook his head. "Torture... it's, just not done. They're desperate, dangerous like a cornered beast. That is too far though, even if they could gain support the priests could turn on them for this, particularly because it was a girl they kidnapped from right outside Linden, madness."

"You think they'll care that much?" I asked a bit doubtfully.

"Alana, they've kept their rules in place by destroying those who disobey for millennia. Why do you think I am so generous towards them? Sure, it's the right thing to do, but history tells us clearly what happens to those who piss off priests too much, and it does it vividly."

"Good to know. Thank you for that," I said.

He patted me on the shoulder. "Of course, now, go find a place you like and get to testing. We need to know how bad this could be."

"Gladly,"