“It’s not as warm as usual,” Chris said.
“You’re wrong,” Imani said, eyes glistening. She turned and kissed his hands. “This isn’t goodbye, Chris Andrews. But I want you to promise me something. If you get the chance, I don’t want you to hesitate. You take it. You see that exit out of the dungeon, and you’re still in this body, you run. You run and you don’t look back. Don’t worry about anything else. You get out, and you live. Promise me that. Even if it’s just you, it will all be worth it. You hear me?”
“I might turn back to a rock,” he said. “Or I might turn into a dog.”
“I don’t care what you are,” Imani said. Her butterfly wings wrapped around them both, like a cocoon, removing them from our sight for just a moment, and when she opened her wings back up, she was pressed tightly against him with his arms wrapped around her.
“I love you,” Chris said. “I always have. No matter what happens next, I love you. That’s the most important part.”
“Ah, very sweet,” Mitch said. “But can we get this moving?”
This was risky, but I was gambling that this Mitch guy was going to do the same thing he had done for Pontiff. He’d choose a “real” spot to show us he wasn’t lying. We were doing it this way to make sure therewasa real spot. Alternatively, he was bluffing and we were about to get attacked. Or there was a portal, and theguards would charge and try to push us in. Clay-ton wasn’t there, having gone back to his band.
“Let’s go,” I said.
Mitch turned the wheel and manually moved it to the Nothing spot. This was the only two-space slice on the whole wheel, and he moved it to the first of the two wedges. Each wedge had four “clicks” in the space, and he moved to the very last click in the first wedge.
He held the wheel in place, and then he hit a button on the table. The whole wheel buzzed as it tried to turn. The area under the “stand here” spot opened up, and a black portal appeared, thrumming into place.
The moment it opened, I remembered the last time I’d been near the real Nothing, and there’d been this heavy mental pull. I would’ve known the portal was there even with my eyes closed. It was said the Nothing drove one insane after just a few short minutes.
I didn’t sense anything like that with this one. It was just as inert as a regular door, with only blackness within.
I quickly examined the portal using my neural implant:
Warning: Your neural implant is working in incompatibility mode due to recent changes to your wetware system. Please see your Valtay representative for repair. Only limited details available.
Unknown Manufacturer Enhancement Zone Subspace Portal.
Type: One-way portal. Open Access.
Can you pass this portal? Yes.
Environment on other side of portal: This portal leads to a stasis chamber.
Visual Analysis? Unavailable.
I wagged my tail. Despite my implant not working correctly, this was pretty much what I was hoping it would say. Hopefullythe implant would go back to working correctly when I stopped being a damn dog.
“Portal only lasts about fifteen seconds,” Mitch said.
Florin: Lucia just said the magic on that one spot is different. I think you’re right, Carl. Chris, I think you’re good. She said there’sonlymagic flowing to that one spot, though. Very weird.
“Bye, Chris!” Donut called.
Chris stepped forward, turned, waved, and dropped away. But just as he dropped, Britney also jumped forward. She, too, disappeared without so much as a word.
It happened so fast, I barked with surprise. That hadnotbeen part of the plan.Goddamnit.
“Oi!” cried Mitch. “You cheat!”
I held up a paw. “Pony, give him another five thousand gold.”
Elle: Oh shit, did that just happen?
CARL: Anyone else going in there needs to keep an eye on Britney. Samantha says she needs to make it to the fifteenth or twelfth floor to activate that broken memorial crystal she has.
Prepotente: Interesting.