This is all very cordial and official. The hunters were chaotic and rude. This is something else…but what?
I take a step forward and she doesn’t wait, turning away from me toward the wall. Just before she makes contact, red light flares from her feet and pierces vertically to the ceiling, then pops open in a portal. She disappears through the doorway, and then the door disappears, too.
“What the fuck…”
I walk toward the wall, hand outstretched, but before I can touch it, my orange magic slips up and opens a similar portal. I poke a finger through and feel someone grasp it on the other side, then tug. I step through the light, feeling electricity course over my body in a wash.
The red wizard is on the other side, holding my finger. She releases it and turns down a nondescript glass hallway. The ceiling is maybe twelve feet up, and the walls ten feet apart. There are no doors, but there are intersections.
A woman turns into the hall from one of them, walking with haste. She’s wearing a white robe with a green cross on the back, her hair up in a tight, black bun.
“The Interdimensional Bureau for Magical Affairs, the IBMA, is a collective of beings from across the realms, universes, whatever you want to call them, with magical abilities.”
I suck down a breath but before I can get a question out, she keeps going.
“What is magic might be your next question, but unfortunately, that is also still up for debate. Magic is a broad term that covers things beyond normal conception or things without explanation you can comprehend. There are some beings out there who claim to know exactly what it is, but we mostly consider them to be hooey shamans.”
“Who—”
“Hooey, excuse me, I’ve become too complacent with my Earth terminology. I mean to say that we have no evidence to believe what they claim.”
She turns down a hall that looks identical to the one we were just in. How does she even navigate?
I jog to catch up with her. “Who are you?”
“Legate Amyrah, designation Firebrand of the TTC, Tactical Terrestrial Corps.”
Legate…Firebrand?
“It’s all just words to you, I’m sure, but what it means is I’m a mage who protects Earth.”
She turns toward the wall and red magic illuminates it, opening a doorway. I follow in quickly behind her and it stays open for me as the color shifts to orange.
There’s a roar and a loud crash before my eyes adjust to the new room. Unlike mine was, this one is bright. Bastian’s glittering black blood is everywhere. His back is to the far wall and he’s surrounded. My stomach clenches in the desperate need to go to him, so I don’tresist it. I rush past Amyrah and push a man aside, breaking through the ring surrounding Bastian.
His panting snarl morphs into something gentle, and fearful. My feet slip on the wet glass and I gasp as I careen forward. Bastian lunges off the wall and snatches me from the air. His body is cold, muscles trembling from strain of holding me and staying upright.
I look up at his reptilian face and caress his scaled maw.
“It’s okay,” I murmur. “We’re safe.”
His gaze darts around the room and his lip curls back as he issues a low growl.
“As promised. We haven’t hurt her,” Amyrah says.
Bastian’s thighs are shaking, his whole body on the verge of collapse.
“Please, sit down. Rest,” I urge.
“Everyone out,” Amyrah says.
“But Legate—” a man starts and she cuts him off with a wave of her hand.
He nods, then looks at the others. “Let’s give them space.”
They leave in an orderly, single-file line, their different magic colors lighting up the wall as they pass through the doorway. Bastian doesn’t sit, doesn’t take his eyes off Amyrah.
“I can’t leave you unattended, so you’ll have to accept my presence.”
