The Gate Traveler

I lay in my tent, tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep. Lis’s offer was tempting, but the thought of going back to Earth made my stomach churn. I’d done a lot of healing, mentally and emotionally, and I was terrified that returning might undo all my progress.

Finally, I fell asleep, and my dreams were a jumbled mess of my past. In my dreams, I saw the officer who came to my kindergarten to pick me up after my mom was killed and the shock and sorrow of her death. I saw my tormentor from the first foster home I lived in. He was twelve and pushed me down the stairs twice. Once, I had a concussion and broke my arm. When it happened for the second time, I ended up breaking the same arm, both legs, and having two cracked ribs. The father in the third home who smacked us around for made-up infractions and called us “trash that nobody wants.” The social worker who called me a “criminal in the making,” and the house manager in the home after I was thirteen who used to search our stuff and pilfer everything valuable for himself, claiming it was a forbidden item.

Morning arrived, and I woke up, surprisingly calm. In the past, when I had dreams like these, they were nightmares, and I used to wake up covered in sweat and crying. Now, I woke up like any other day. I wasn’t sad or afraid and knew those things were in the past and had no more hold over me. While lying there, I told myself, “The past is dead and gone. You live in the present and can create your future. The rest is just noise.”

As a wave of clarity washed over me, I felt this truth settle deep within. I felt the familiar unclenching in my beingness and the physical wave accompanying it. I checked my mana, now I knew how it worked!

Mana: 7200/7600

Woo Hoo!

Lis’s words about mana reflecting our essence finally made sense. I was ready to return to Earth, this time on my terms.

The following morning, I headed to Lis’s house and knocked on the door. Hopefully, I wasn’t too early, but he answered fully dressed.

“Come in. Where is Stretch?” he asked, looking around as if expecting the dog to be nearby.

“Exploring,” I replied with a smile.

“Would you like some breakfast? I was just about to start,” he offered.

“Actually, I’m dying to try out your kitchen. Can you show me how it works, and I’ll cook us breakfast?”

“Sure, I would be happy to.” He led me to the kitchen, pointing out the round metal plates and a raised dark red crystal.

“Channel your mana into this crystal,” he explained. “When it is dark red, it is full. As it gets used up, the color fades. When it gets light pink, it is empty. This knob controls the temperature—the higher the temperature, the more mana it uses.”

“Thanks. Go relax; I’ll call you when it’s ready.”

I rubbed my hands in anticipation. I also wanted to examine the cooking system from the inside to figure out how it was done, but I told myself to be patient. It was fun to cook in a proper kitchen and not on a campfire. I made pancakes, bacon, sunny-side-up eggs, and hash browns and had a blast. While cooking, I had a thought: I saw gas stovetops with two or three burners that didn’t use electricity; why hadn’t I considered buying one? If my mechanical camera worked, there was no reason for a stovetop not to work.

After everything was ready, I went to the porch and shouted, “Stretch! Breakfast!” I spotted him sprinting toward me from a distance. Of course, he will never miss breakfast or any other meal. That dog was a bottomless pit.

I arranged everything on the dining table, placed a big plate for Stretch with bacon, eggs, and mukar burgers, and called Lis for breakfast. We enjoyed our meal, and I got a lot of compliments from Lis, with an accompanying feeling of agreement from Stretch.

When we finished eating, I said to Lis, “I thought about your offer, and I accept it with gratitude.”

Lis’s face brightened with a wide grin. “I am delighted to hear that. I was hoping that would be your answer.”

He leaned in closer, his expression turning more serious. “Last night, after you went to your tent, I looked in my library and pulled out seven books that I think you should study before doing the ritual. Three are about the basics of mana. Two are books about rituals, one at a basic level and the other at a more advanced level. One teaches the runic language you need for the ritual. The last one discusses the whole subject of familiars and explains this concept in more depth, and has the binding ritual and the re-summoning ritual.”

He rubbed his chin thoughtfully, as if weighing the importance of his next words. “Unfortunately, each of the seven books is in a different language, so you will need to learn seven languages. Plus, you will need a lot of mana for the ritual, so I recommend that we stay here as long as necessary because the regeneration on Earth is atrocious.”

“Thank you very much!” I said, my eyes widening in surprise. “I did not expect so many books.”

“Yes, you can do the ritual with a basic knowledge of ritualism and learn the runes needed just for the ritual,” Lis explained. “But then there will be a chance that it will fail, and if the ritual fails, it cannot be repeated. So, I believe it is worth investing the time to study the subject in depth and then doing the ritual properly with guaranteed success. Do you agree with me?”

“Yes, you are right,” I agreed, nodding.

“Before I get the books, have you thought of any more questions?” Lis asked with a mischievous smile.

“Not really,” I admitted with a shake of my head. “I was busy thinking about my decision and didn’t take time for questions. And if we travel together, I’ll have all the time in the world to ask all the questions.”

He laughed softly, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “So that is the reason you decided to travel with me, huh?”

I chuckled. “That was one reason.”

“Would you like to come with me to my library?” he asked, gesturing toward the stairs with a welcoming smile.

“Absolutely!” I responded enthusiastically.

He laughed and waved for me to follow. The second floor was a long hallway with two doors on each side, one at the end and one to the right of the stairs.

Lis pointed to the right side of the hallway and said, “Those two doors are guest rooms, and each has a washroom.” Pointed to the left side of the hallway and said, “The door near the stairs is the library, and the other door is my bedroom. The door at the end of the hallway and the door by the stairs are toilets.

“You are welcome to stay at my home. I saw you like to cook, so you can enjoy my kitchen. You can stay in one of the guest rooms, and you will have access to the library if you need more references. It will take you at least a month to study the books and do the ritual if you are a fast student, and chances are it will take you longer. I am thinking of traveling, meeting the locals, enjoying nature, and returning in forty days. What do you think?”

“All I can say is thank you. I feel a bit indebted.”

He laughed and patted me on the back. “You do not have to always thank me. I enjoy guiding new Travelers, and you will help me fulfill a dream I have had for a long time. You have no reason to feel indebted; we will help each other.”

He led me into the library. It was a large square room with floor-to-ceiling shelves full of books and scrolls, a ladder beside the door, a table in the middle with two chairs, and a couch by the window. His library had hundreds of books. Before I left, I also bought a lot of fiction books and every professional reference book I could find, so I think I had more books than him—at least more books than he had in his library—but the fact that all those books were about magic put it in a different perspective. Those books really drove home the fact that I knew nothing about magic and mana, and was just beginning to learn. I had a lot to learn and was impatient to start.

Lis pointed to a pile of books on the table and said, “These are the books I prepared for you. Notice that one book is alone, and the rest are arranged in a stack. The lone book is the runic language. You will find that you cannot learn runes one after the other. You can learn two or a maximum of three, and then you will need a break. So I recommend you start with the runes, learn as much as you can, and then start reading the rest of the books in the order I arranged them.”

He pointed to another stack of books on the windowsill and said, “If you do not understand something, I have organized some reference books there. Unfortunately, they are also in different languages, so you will have to learn them if you need more information. Do not rush to the reference books if something is not clear. Read ahead, and maybe you will figure it out; if not, go to the reference books.”

“Thanks.”

“You are welcome. Come, I will show you your room and how to use the washroom.”

He led me to the room opposite the library. The room was spacious, with a double bed, a chest of drawers, and a small table with two chairs by the window. On the left wall was a door that Lis opened. Inside was a large metal bathtub similar to copper but of a darker red color, with a faucet very similar to the faucets on Earth and two crystals on the sides of the faucet. There was also a sink with another faucet, and next to it were crystals. One crystal was red, and the other was a light blue. I guessed that red is fire and light blue is ice.

Lis pointed to the crystals and said, “Same as in the kitchen, if the color is deep red, the crystal is full; if it is very light pink, it is empty and must be filled with mana. The blue crystal condenses water from the air and flows it into the faucet. Vibrant blue means it is full. Very pale blue, almost white, means it is empty. The maximum amount of mana each crystal can take is one thousand units. Before you bathe, ensure the crystals have enough mana, then turn on the faucet and adjust the water. I have seen very similar faucets on Earth, so I am sure you will figure out how to use them.”

He led me to the bathroom by the stairs and opened the door. The toilet differed from what I was familiar with. It had a dark brown glass construction shaped like an armchair with handrests and a backrest with a hole in the middle. Each of the handrests had a crystal on it. On the right was a clear crystal, and on the left was a black crystal.

Lis pointed to the crystals and said, “The clear is Purify, and the black is Void. After you use the toilet, pour five units of mana into the black crystal, which will clean the toilet’s inside. After the black, pour ten units of mana into the clear crystal, and it will purify the entire room.”

It looked simple and ingenious. I was very curious to see how this entire system worked, but I was afraid I would destroy something if I tried to look. Lis said he wants to be a Magicaneer, so maybe he can show me how it works after he gets the class.

We returned downstairs, and Lis said, “I am going to stock up on food and drinks. You can go up and start studying. I will tell you before I leave.”

He turned to Stretch. “You can get on the furniture but be careful not to ruin the upholstery with your nails. If you shed fur, please let your human know so he can clean after you. Okay?”

Stretch nodded.

“Thank you, Stretch; you are a great dog, and you will be an even better familiar.”

I returned to the library, paid five ability points for runic languages, and started learning the runic language. Lis was right; the first rune was easy, the second harder. After the third, I felt pressure in my head, and after the fourth, I had a headache. I cast Healing Touch on myself, and it didn’t help. I leaned my head back and waited for the headache to pass. After fifteen minutes, it weakened gradually, and within half an hour, the headache disappeared. I learned to listen to Lis; he said two or three runes, and I wouldn’t push myself to learn more.

I took the first book, paid five hundred mana to learn the written language, and opened the book. When I looked at the text, it was just shapes on the page. I checked my mana: 6,515/7600. According to my calculations, the numbers aligned—500 for the written language and 50 for each rune. I started at a little over 7200. So why didn’t I get the language? I tried looking at the text again, but it didn’t work. The third time, it still didn’t work. Hmm. I went downstairs and found Lis in the kitchen, taking food from the fridge.

“Lis, can you help me, please?” I asked, a hint of frustration in my voice. “I’ve hit a snag.”

“Yes?”

“I paid 500 mana to learn the written language,” I explained, holding up the book with a frown. “But I look at the text, and it’s just hieroglyphs. I can’t understand anything.”

Lis’s brows furrowed in thought as he considered my issue. “Did you pay only for the written language or also for the language itself?”

I facepalmed, realizing my mistake. “Ahhh! Yes, that’s what was missing. I didn’t think about it. You can’t learn to read a language without learning the language. I understand. Sorry for interrupting.”

I tried to escape from the kitchen to hide my embarrassment and red face, but Lis stopped me with a hand on my shoulder and said, “Stop feeling embarrassed. You have no reason to feel this way. Tell me, in your world, did you have a profession?”

“Yes, I’m a doctor.”

Lis’s eyes widened in understanding. “No wonder you got the Healer Class,” he said, a smile tugging at his lips. “When you started studying medicine, did you feel embarrassed that you did not know the content of the class before the class?”

I shook my head, a hint of frustration creeping into my voice. “It’s not the same.”

Lis leaned forward, his tone earnest. “It is. You are new, and you are learning. Even I, who grew up with a Traveler father and some of his Traveler friends who sometimes came to visit, encountered things I did not know or did not understand. Life is a learning process. Enjoy the journey, and stop feeling embarrassed if you do not know something.”

I nodded; he had a way to make me reconsider things. “Thank you. I feel you’re my sensei.”

Lis raised an eyebrow, puzzled. “What is Sensei?”

“It’s a term that comes from the cultures of the Far East, and it refers to a wise teacher who guides a student.”

With a smile, Lis replied, “Yes, right now, I am your sensei. But one day, you will be someone else’s sensei. So, remember this experience and learn from it.”

“I will. Thanks for the explanation; I’m going back to study.”

“Have fun.”

Lis came up with Stretch after an hour to talk to me. “One more thing I almost forgot to tell you. Your name, John, is not so unusual and has many variations in many places: Jon, Johin, Joh, Johein, and others. So, even if it sounds different, it still sounds like it can originate from the world you are visiting. The name Stretch is much more unusual, and I am sure that in many places, the people will have trouble pronouncing the name.”

“Yeah ... here, most of the people call him Sresh.”

“I suggest you change the name and do it before the ritual. Once the ritual is complete, his name will be set in stone. I talked about it with Stretch, and I have an idea he likes. Your family name is Rue. It is a short and simple name that can sound like a dog’s name almost anywhere. By giving him your family name, you will be making him part of your family, so Stretch likes that. What do you think?”

I thought about it briefly and asked Stretch, “You won’t have a problem getting used to a new name?”

He shook his head no.

“You want to be called Rue?”

He nodded yes, wagged his tail, and flooded me with approval. I understood he answered with nods and head shakes for Lis’s benefit.

Smart dog.

“Okay, buddy, you’re Rue now.”

He licked my face and wagged his tail even harder.

Lis told him, “Let’s go back downstairs; John needs to study.”

They left, and I got back to my book.

________________

Lis left a few hours later. Stretch Rue and I escorted him out. He took out a glider, strapped it to his arms, chest, and legs, and took a few running steps. I felt a large burst of mana with an air or wind flavor, and it lifted him into the sky. I looked at it in amazement.

Wow, I want one too.

I returned inside and continued studying.