Chasing Portals: Swords and Science Book 1 Read online

  “Stop,” he said suddenly and much to her dismay, halted well short of the trees. Looking exasperated he said, “You didn’t have to be rude to Glerni. You’re drunk, aren’t you? What is this all about?”

  Ron’s words aroused the curiosity of several onlookers. Laurela started to cry and wanted to run. She desperately tried to compose herself. Leaning on a metal pole for strength, she tucked some hair behind her ear and glanced away, momentarily.

  She started to speak, but paused as her chest rose and tears pooled in her eyes. “I’m sorry Ron, but I…”

  Ron looked confused. He opened his mouth to talk. “What is—”

  She cut him off and blurted out between sobs, “I love you!”

  He froze. He stared at her, eyes wide.

  “Oh, Ron. I'm sorry. I just—please—just say something,” she blathered with a fresh set of tears ready to erupt.

  “Do you mean it?” he asked quietly.

  “That I love you? Yes, I mean it,” she replied with a shaky voice. She couldn't believe she had actually said it. Now, it was out in the open, for better or for worse. Silently, she prayed it was not for worse.

  Ron looked amazingly calm which unnerved her further. She contemplated running, but he began speaking again in the same quiet voice. “I need to know that you really mean it. That this is not just some drink inspired plot to get me in your bed on our last night at the Institute. I don't want to do that with you, not like this. I do have feelings for you. So I'm going to ask one more time. Do you really mean it?”

  She felt a flood or relief and blurted an enthusiastic, “Yes!”

  For the first time since announcing her affection for him, Ron slowly smiled. He darted his eyes and she followed his gaze. A small crowd was growing around them. It was obvious she and Ron were quickly becoming the center of attention.

  “I think we’ve given them enough of a show,” he said as he clasped her hand and led her toward the magnolia trees. She found his touch exhilarating and she shivered with goose bumps. Her elusive dream had come true. Quivering in disbelief, she tightened her grasp on his hand to ensure it didn’t slip away.

  As they left the area, Laurela caught a glimpse of Glerni, who had joined the onlookers. Glerni’s arms were folded beneath her prominent breasts and she had a look of astonishment on her face. “He’s mine,” Laurela thought with satisfaction and smiled as they walked away.

  When they reached the privacy of the trees, Ron pulled her close and gave her a light kiss on the lips. Laurela’s heart quickened and her body tingled with a fresh set of goose bumps. His brown eyes greeted hers as they parted and sat beneath the white and pink umbrella of magnolia blooms.

  “I never imagined you were interested in me,” he said, still smiling and still holding her hand. “You have always been a great friend, but you always seemed so serious and disapproving of me.”

  “I was more jealous than anything,” she admitted, looking away. “I was afraid to say anything to you about my feelings. Why would you want me when you could, and did, have any woman you wanted?”

  Ron laughed. “You were afraid? I was afraid! None of the girls I've been with were really interested in me. It has always been just about sex with no strings attached. That's easy. Relationships and commitments, now those are scary. Hell, having this conversation with you is scaring the shit out of me.” He laughed again and squeezed her hand.

  The evening had become surreal for Laurela and, despite her previous anxiety, she now felt completely at ease. Finally expressing her long suppressed feelings coupled with the flood of relief from Ron’s reciprocation, the lemony vanilla aroma of the magnolia blossoms, and the buzz from the alcohol all created a charged serenity unlike anything she had ever felt. She wished to capture it in a bottle and hold onto it forever.

  She regarded him and saw warmth nestled within his dark brown eyes. “I've been terrified all day. I'm amazed I actually said anything to you. It was probably the single most embarrassing moment of my life. But, I'm glad I found the courage to do it,” she said, smiling widely at him.

  “So am I,” he replied. “I so want to take you to bed right now, but I don't want us to be just about sex. I want to hold on to this moment as long as possible.”

  Laurela snuggled close to him and laid her head on his chest. “Just hold me,” she whispered.

  He lifted her chin and kissed her again. This time the kiss was longer and deeper. Her breath caught as he gently lowered her to a prone position and wrapped her in his embrace—just as the sky over the quad erupted in flash of sparkling brilliance.

  CHAPTER 7

  Fodjan ushered Nightlocke out of Rainstel’s office as the last rays of sunlight were disappearing over the horizon. Fodjan moved faster than Nightlocke thought possible as he directed him to the nearest corner of the quad at a point inside the tree line.

  “Ahh, this should do. We should have an excellent view from here and we are just in time!” Fodjan said, bubbling with excitement.

  Nightlocke loved Fodjan’s enthusiasm. You couldn’t help but be swept in by it. Eager with anticipation and curiosity, Nightlocke gazed along the tree line to the horizon. “So what exactly did Ambernifer do?”

  “Wait, wait. You’ll see,” Fodjan urged. “I don’t want to ruin the surprise. I’ll explain it all in a few minutes.”

  Almost on cue, the streamers draped across the quad began to sparkle and then silently exploded, filling the sky with a dazzling display of multi-colored flashes. It was like a rainbow of a million fireflies bursting forth from the heavens.

  Complete silence settled over the quad as the lights flickered out after thirty spectacular seconds. Slowly, a few revelers emerged from their stupors and began to applaud. Then the quad erupted into a thunderous ovation.

  Fodjan gleefully clapped his hands and chirped in a high pitched voice, “Oh, how glorious!”

  Nightlocke was stunned. “What? How? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything quite so amazing!” he stammered and exclaimed all at once.

  Fodjan grabbed his sleeve. “Come along quickly,” he said moving toward the center of the quad. “We must find Ambernifer.”

  Ambernifer was surrounded by several fellow faculty members who looked to be offering her congratulations for her achievement. Fodjan burst through, with Nightlocke still in tow, and enveloped Ambernifer in a bear hug that lifted her off her feet.

  “Congratulations my dear! That was even more spectacular than we had dared hope for!”

  “Fodjan,” Ambernifer gasped, “can't breathe.”

  “Oh, sorry, dear,” Fodjan said as he released her, “but that was wonderful!”

  “Yes,” Ambernifer agreed with a huge smile. “The weather conditions were absolutely perfect and it all went off without a hitch.”

  Turning to Nightlocke she said, “I hope you enjoyed it Mr. Scientist. You're the first to graduate as a Scientist from here since me and I wanted to cook up something special for you. I didn't have time to do testing at anything near this scale, but Fodjan helped me work through a few kinks and convinced me to give it shot. I was afraid it wouldn't be ready.”

  “I'm glad he did. It was incredible,” Nightlocke said. “Thank you! You've got to tell me how you did it.”

  “I figured you might say that,” Ambernifer said with slight laugh and a wink of her dark brown eyes.

  Nightlocke gulped. Was Ambernifer flirting with him? He kind of hoped so. Ron was right, Ambernifer was a striking woman. Wow, was the thought of a student – teacher relationship such an anathema to him that his subconscious had prevented him from seeing what was truly there?

  The torch lights sprang to life throughout the quad and gave Ambernifer's dark hair a shimmering iridescence and her eyes a captivating twinkle. Her navy blue corset dress was not overly short or suggestive, but it hugged the curves of her taut body perfectly. It was hypnotic.

  Ambernifer waved a hand in front of his face, “Hey, genius, are you with me?” she asked.

 
“Yes, sorry,” Nightlocke said quickly. He could feel a flush creeping into his cheeks and he hoped the indirect torch light would cover it for him.

  “Anyway,” she continued, “I've been working on a chromatic fabric that absorbs ultraviolet energy from the sun and then manipulates the energy to produce different colors in the fabric. A side effect I stumbled upon was that darkness could cause the stored energy to consume the fabric and create a burst of light.”

  Nightlocke kept his eyes on her. “So, you developed a means of controlling the energy burst to create tonight's display. How did you do it?”

  “Well, at first the energy burst was not a desired effect, and I was looking for a way to suppress it entirely. Then it occurred to me the energy burst could be used to create a pretty spectacular effect. So, I started experimenting with...” Ambernifer cut herself off in mid-sentence… “You know, it may be easier if I showed you. Let's grab a few drinks and head over to my lab.” She glanced at Fodjan. “You don't mind if I steal away the guest of honor, do you?”

  Fodjan scratched at his underbelly. “Not at all. I believe he has fulfilled his honoree duties,” Fodjan replied. “Besides, I have guests to attend to, food to eat, and drinks to consume before this feast is over. I am the host after all.” Tilting his head in a mock bow, Fodjan shuffled away through the crowd.

  “Come on,” Ambernifer said as she started walking in the direction of the nearest drink station. Admiring the sway of her ass, Nightlocke gladly followed.

  When she reached the drink station she selected a bottle of wine and a pair of glasses. She hesitated then handed the bottle to Nightlocke and grabbed another. She smiled and said, “It would be a shame to have to walk back here.”

  Nightlocke reached for some words as they walked toward the labs. “I really do appreciate you leaving the party to show me everything.”

  “I was pretty much done with the party. It’s a true pleasure to be able to share my work with someone who’s interested,” she said.

  Ambernifer nodded to several students as they stumbled by. “So, tomorrow is the day everyone starts to clear out of here. I haven’t heard anything about your plans. Are you sticking around here for a while?”

  No, something totally unexpected,” he answered. “I just received news from Rainstel about an offer to apprentice with a guy named Dagan Garris. Have you ever heard of him?”

  “No,” she replied.

  “Me neither. Rainstel and Fodjan seem to think he walks on water,” Nightlocke said.

  Ambernifer stopped and looked at him with a cocked eyebrow. “Really? That's interesting. I wonder who the hell he is.”

  “Well, I'm going to find out,” he shrugged. “My curiosity is certainly piqued. He doesn't live too far away, near Brighton. I'm going to catch a coach tomorrow and see what the mysterious Mr. Garris is all about.”

  Ambernifer started walking again. “I imagine it’s a good opportunity if Rainstel and Fodjan vouch for him. They wouldn’t intentionally lead you astray. But why take the risk? You’ve got great facilities at your disposal here and I would love the opportunity to work more closely with you as a colleague. We could do some great things together,” she said as they entered the two-story building housing the labs.

  Nightlocke wasn’t sure if the double entendre hinted at in her remarks was intentional, but he decided it was probably safer to ignore it for now. He held the door and took the second bottle from her hand. “I’m sure we could accomplish a great deal, but I really want to see some new places—some different perspectives—and round out my experience. The Tuvir Institute was my first choice until this new opportunity presented itself.”

  Ambernifer traversed down the south corridor to the private faculty labs. “Well, maybe I can convince you otherwise after explaining all that went into making tonight’s light show and all that remains to be done.”

  The laboratory building hallways were well lit around the clock by a series of incandium lanterns. Students and faculty pervaded the labs at all hours.

  Ambernifer handed the wine glasses to Nightlocke and unlocked the door to her lab. While Nightlocke juggled the wine bottles and glasses, Ambernifer pulled a small bag from a dress pocket as she entered the room. She sprinkled some of the contents into the lantern hanging near door. The lantern instantly sprang to life, diminishing the darkness within the lab.

  Nightlocke glanced around the lab as Ambernifer lit a couple of additional lanterns. He almost dropped the glasses and bottles. To his surprise, the lab was cluttered with unwashed glassware and fabric samples covered most of the granite lab bench surface. This was atypical of Ambernifer. Her lab was always organized and orderly. Tidy to the extreme.

  Ambernifer held out her hands palms up and shrugged. “What can I say? It's been a busy week.”

  She cleared a spot on the lab bench and relieved Nightlocke of the wine and glasses. She reached into a drawer and extracted a bone handled corkscrew. She deftly pried the cork from a bottle and filled the glasses.

  “Cheers,” she said as she raised one of the glasses and drained the contents. “It’s been a busy week and a very long day.”

  Not wanting to be left behind, Nightlocke raised the other glass, uttered a quick, “agreed,” and emptied it.

  Ambernifer flashed him a grin of approval and refilled the glasses. Taking a sip she said, “Ok, let me show you how I created that little light show tonight, while I’m still able to.”

  She glanced at the lanterns spread around the room. “Before I get started, what do you know about incandium and its properties?”

  Nightlocke set his wine glass down on the lab bench. “Oh, just the basics. Red incandium and its allotrope yellow incandium are, of course, Gandany’s primary fuel sources. Red incandium is naturally occurring and abundant in the rocky terrain of the western Calerian deserts.”

  Ambernifer nodded. “I’ve been to Caleria and seen the mining and refinery operations where the incandium rock is harvested and separated it into its pure form. It’s quite impressive.”

  Nightlocke’s eyes widened. “Really? That’s cool. I’d like to see it. I’ve only read about it in books.”

  “We’ll have to take road trip sometime,” she said then wiggled her fingers at him. “Continue on.”

  “Okay, red incandium has a single bond tetrahedral molecular structure and produces an intense blaze of searing heat when ignited. Carefully melting red incandium at high temperatures transforms it into its yellow allotrope upon cooling. The resulting chain-like molecular structure of yellow incandium has greater stability and, upon ignition, emits the familiar bright glow we see in the lanterns with virtually no flicker and only slight warmth to the touch. Both incandium allotropes have a very slow consumption rate and combust upon contact with phosphorous. That’s why we all carry around small bags of phosphorous to turn on the lights. Further…”

  “Whoa. Whoa.” Ambernifer interrupted, sliding a finger across her throat. “You have a strange notion of the ‘basics’.”

  He tilted his head and sipped his wine. “I guess I just get carried away when talking about science.”

  “I get it,” she nodded. “I’m about to do the same thing.”

  Nightlocke clinked her glass and smiled. “I can’t wait to hear it.”

  Ambernifer put a finger to her temple and tapped. “Where to start? Well, you know I’ve been working on the creation of a chromatic fabric for most of the academic year. My objective is to create a fabric that will absorb variable frequencies of electromagnetic radiation and reflect any desired color within the visible spectrum. Just recently I produced some results that turned my research in a different direction.”

  “And that’s how you ended up with tonight’s light show?” Nightlocke asked with raised eyebrows.

  She scowled at him and drank her wine. “Yes, sort of. I’m getting there, just be patient. My initial success was formulating a mixture of photo reactive chemicals capable of absorbing light radiation and creating colors. After
a few adjustments, I was able to apply the formulation to common fabrics such as wool, linen, and cotton without degradation to the fabric.”

  She glanced at Nightlocke and smiled. “And, since I know you’ll ask, I also tested keratium, but was unable to achieve adequate saturation of the fabric with the chemical compound.”

  “That makes sense.” He nodded thoughtfully and refilled their wine glasses, emptying the bottle. “Keratium is a dense fabric.” He raised his glass and smiled at her. “And yes, I would have asked.”

  “Thought so,” she said as she picked up the corkscrew and opened the second bottle. “Anyway, my first successful fabric treatments used slight variations of the formula to achieve each color I wanted to produce. Eventually I developed a neutral solution I could encode with a short burst of colored light.”

  Ambernifer set her glass down and lifted up pieces of the scattered fabric covering the lab bench. “Ah,” she said holding up an eight inch lead pipe with a green colored glass disk covering one end.

  “That’s a portable light with a green lens on the end, right?’ Nightlocke ask.

  She nodded and unscrewed the cap from the end opposite the green lens. She held it up so he could see the incandium inside. She replaced the cap, set the pipe down, and picked up a small felt lined wood box. Inside were a rainbow of colored disks similar to one attached to the portable light.

  She put the box down and retrieved her wine. “I call it a spectrum light. I decide the color I want, attach the appropriate lens, and then shine the spectrum light on the treated fabric. If I want a different color I just select another disk and repeat the process.”

  Nightlocke stared at her in amazement. “All you have to do is treat the fabric with your photo reactive compound and then use the spectrum light to turn it into any color you want? That’s incredible!”

  She sighed and took a long sip of wine. “I wish it was that simple. This is why I asked about your understanding of incandium. The colored incandium light is able to key the photo reactive chemicals with the light absorption frequencies needed to produce the selected color, but it doesn’t visibly change the color of the fabric. Yellow incandium doesn’t produce enough heat radiation to fully power the chemical reactions necessary to produce colors. So far, sunlight is the only light source I’ve found that works.”