"I want to see if it's solid," Adam replied. He made a motion with his hand, and the ASE floated through the arch, appearing from the other one. "Looks safe."
I gave Elyssa a look. She raised an eyebrow.
"On three?" she said, unfastening the rope from her waist.
I nodded, removing my rope.
She took my hand. "One, Two, Three."
We stepped inside. The world warped like a fishbowl for the barest instant, hardly enough to even register, and then we stood next to Adam.
"Well, you're still alive," he said, and touched the edge of the portal. The image didn't shift or ripple. "I feel a slight resistance on the outer edge, but it's not solid."
"Fascinating," Shelton said, walking over to touch the portal. "Now, how do we turn the thing off?"
"I'm guessing it stays open until you close the connection," I said. "Otherwise you might strand yourself."
He grunted. "Good point."
"Maybe we should leave it open for now," Adam suggested as he walked around the arch. "Just to be sure your theory is correct."
"Considering the Cyrinthian Rune bounced between the two ends of this arch for so long, I believe it would stay open indefinitely," Cinder said.
I examined both sides of the portal to see the same image of the arch room. Apparently, it was possible to walk in from either side and end up in the same place. Excitement rushed through me. "You know what this means?" I said. "We have a blank ticket to go anywhere."
"I can go to Colombia and visit my friends whenever I want," Bella said, a smile brightening her face. "I've really missed my pink house."
"Everyone can come straight here," I said, thinking about my other friends. All I had to do was open a portal at their end.
"How would that work?" Adam said. "Do you need to visualize where you want the arch to open? What if you've never been there before?"
"Good question," Shelton said, eyeing the thing.
"We should test that next," Bella said.
"Agreed," I added. "It won't do us much good if we haven't been somewhere before."
"And what if the places look almost identical, like control rooms?" Shelton said.
I felt a frown tug on my lips. That was a really good question. "Maybe minor details would help," Elyssa said. "Like the stable looks different at the Grotto than the one in Queens Gate."
"Yeah, but we don't want to open a portal in plain view of people who aren't in on our little secret," Shelton said.
"Let's figure out if we can open a portal somewhere we haven't been," I said.
Shelton grunted. "Let's see if you can turn this one off first."
I looked at the arch and thought, Disconnect. It folded in on itself like an accordion, seemingly disassembling itself at the molecular level before vanishing. I made duck lips and gave Shelton a top-that! look.
He rolled his eyes.
"Mind if I give it a try?" Adam said as we walked back to the arch.
Meghan gave him an alarmed look. "I don't know if you should."
"I'll be his arch buddy," Shelton said.
She raised an eyebrow. Her lips trembled as if she really wanted to say something, but held it back. "Fine."
"Let's try to replicate Justin's feat," Adam said, fastening the rope around his waist.
Shelton nodded, and closed the circle.
I explained how I'd imagined the connection between rooms to Adam. After staring at the arch for a moment, the destination portal appeared in roughly the same spot mine had. Adam and Shelton high-fived before stepping through and emerging at the other end.
It took Adam a few seconds to shut down the portal. He and Shelton walked back, talking excitedly.
"Would someone need Arcane abilities to use the omniarch?" Cinder said.
"Probably," I said. "Then again, if you can close a circle, maybe that's all there is to it." I felt certain a golem couldn't do even that, but didn't want to voice my opinion to Cinder. It might hurt his feelings.
And so began the experimentation. Several hours and a few pizzas later, we figured out a few things. If we visualized a specific location, the portal would open there. Sometimes, though, it would open in a place that looked similar but was actually someplace completely different. Bella opened a portal in the front yard of her Colombian home, gave an excited squeak, and retrieved her favorite teacups. I taught Elyssa how to close a magical circle and she opened a gateway in front of her parents' house, much to the surprise of a patrolling Templar who nearly nailed me with a Lancer dart.
We even let Cinder take a stab at it, but he couldn't close the circle or cause the arch to do anything. I felt really bad for him as he stepped back outside the circle, his face betraying no emotion, but his voice sounding glum.
"It appears you were right, Harry," the golem said, looking at the omniarch. "My spark is not a soul."
Shelton patted the golem on the back. "Nothing to be ashamed of, man."
"I do not feel shame," Cinder said, tilting his head slightly. "Although, I do feel an overwhelming sense of disappointment at my inadequacy."
Next, we tried opening the portal in places we hadn't been. In one case, it opened into a black void. Thankfully, it didn't seem to be a vacuum, because the air didn't rush out of the room and sweep us to our doom, but Shelton and Adam nearly crapped their pants. Bella told them to send a globe of light through.
"This is freaking me out," Shelton said as a glowing ball floated from his wand and into the void.
Something growled in a tone so deep, the air vibrated.
"Disconnect!" Adam shouted in unison with Shelton.
The omniarch flicked off.
The two men wiped sweat from their foreheads and staggered out of the circle on weak knees. Shelton, the whites of his eyes still showing, pointed back at the arch. "I will never use that thing again without knowing the destination."
Nobody disagreed.
"Would a picture of a location be adequate?" Cinder asked.
"I ain't gonna test it," Shelton said.
Elyssa and I took places inside the circle, making sure to firmly fasten the rope to our waists.
"Try this one," Adam said, showing me the picture of a snowy mountain top. "It's the top of Mount Everest."
I stared at the picture, noting the permanent landmarks as opposed to the snow and other fluid elements which could change. If, for example, I imagined a grassy field, the arch might open in any of a zillion places. If I knew of a grassy field with a red fence, that might cut it down to a few thousand. But a grassy field with a particular boulder in it might land me in the right spot. Unique landmarks seemed necessary.
I concentrated on the arch, envisioning the destination. It hummed and flickered. Snow swirled through the opening and freezing air stung my cheeks. A man in a yellow parka stood outside a domed tent, staring at us open-mouthed. He yelled in another language, and someone else poked their head out of the tent.
Disconnect!
The arch blinked off.
"I'd say it works," Shelton said, "Although it's kind of cheating to get to the top that way."
"Those noms are gonna be scarred for life," Adam said with a chuckle.
Elyssa gave him a disapproving look. "It's not funny. Now I'll probably have to let the Custodians know so they can bring them in for rehabilitation."
"Nah, they'll be fine," Shelton said. "There ain't much oxygen up there, so he'll probably chalk it up to hallucination or something."
"That's true," Bella said.
Elyssa mulled it over for a moment before nodding. "I hope so."
As they continued to discuss the merits of nom rehabilitation, I opened the file Lornicus had given me—this time using my phone—and scrolled through the map. "Nookli, zoom into first person view," I told my phone.
"Justin, there are three Indian restaurants nearby. At which one would you like me to schedule a reservation?"
I took a deep breath, holding back a choice curse word, and repeated myself in concise tones. This time, Nookli got it right. The first-person perspective allowed me to view the control room at El Dorado in much better detail. Even better, the imagery had apparently been taken with a camera, or the magical equivalent—an ASE perhaps?—so it was as good as having a picture. Unfortunately, the control room looked identical to the other two I'd seen at Queens Gate and the Grotto.
The Alabaster Arch wasn't a good reference either since the control room at Thunder Rock had one. On the other hand, it narrowed our odds to one in five of landing the right one, provided there weren't more Alabaster Arches than we'd calculated.
"Project image," I told Nookli. The phone complied, creating a holographic image of the control room for all to view.
"I see what you're doing there," Shelton said. "Good idea."
"Gotta find a unique marker," I said. "Otherwise, we'll end up at the wrong city of doom."
Adam shuddered. "Or a monster void."
"What was that dark place?" Elyssa asked.
Nobody answered.
"Imagine if we let something loose," Bella said. "What if that growly thing came through?"
"New rule," Shelton said, "No using the arch unless you're absolutely sure you can picture the location."
"Or using the arch without a companion," Elyssa said, giving me a pointed look.
"I believe I see something," Cinder said, pointing toward the upper right corner of the world map on the wall in the front of the control room.
I zoomed in on the area, and found a symbol. "That's not Cyrinthian," I said. "At least not a symbol I recognize." By now, I'd memorized the alphabet and could read a little bit of the language, though I understood very little.
"I don't recognize it either," Nightliss said.