Chapter 43 – What's Outside This Pyramid?
With Viktor's support, Cho had taken charge of the team in our absence. She had Cissy and Jaden photographing every part of the pyramid, black stone and circles, others scouring the floors for writing, and still others in fixed defensive positions. She and Adrienne were sketching the locations of balconies, portals, and each stone. Seeing Adrienne reminded me that I had missed an opportunity with the purple diamond.
"I'm foolish," I confessed to Adrienne, "I could have used Witch Sculpture to duplicate the purple diamond, before I surrendered it to Odin."
"You can't just look at the outside of a three-dimensional object and whammo! For Witch sculpture to work, you need to understand what the thing is made of and how it looks inside," Hermione corrected me. "We know how a broom and a straw hat are made, so we can transfigure the one into the other. A person who doesn't understand how your new wand is made and what makes it special, couldn't simply Witch sculpt a duplicate. They could make a stick of wood that looked exactly like your wand, but it wouldn't perform like your wand.
"I, on the other hand, had Uncle Reg to tell me exactly what the crystal lattice of the purple diamond looked like and how the potassium and rubidium atoms are spread throughout the lattice. So…"
She pulled a replica of the purple diamond from her robes. "I think this should work like the original. Uncle Reg has no way of knowing what spells may have been applied to the diamond and I couldn't detect any, but if part of the magic of its function is an obscure spell, well then this copy won't work like the original. But … I'm very sure that it will. I don't think we should test that yet - it may allow the baddie who created the little circle to re-establish control."
The diamond was quickly returned to her robes. Only Adrienne, Cho, and I knew that Hermione had the duplicate diamond.
"I really stopped by to tell you that Tendra wanted to take a look at the stone stairs and control landing to determine if they were created by Goblins. I wanted to show Ron the landing, so I agreed to apparate Tendra. I assume you are going to want to explore the down stairs and see if they lead to the outside. Harry is too hobbled to join you and Cho is otherwise occupied. Why don't you take Barb and Catta with you?"
I told Harry and Dad what I planned to do. They agreed, but made me promise that if there was a path to the outside that I would look, but not actually go through the external portal. Tony, who was standing next to Dad, suggested "you might want to take your talking spider with you. She is very good at exploring. You might also take your raven. Either of them could have scouted the landing for you, before you all but broke Harry's ankle."
It's not every Witch who is accused of husband abuse by the British Prime Minister. I felt he was being a bit free and loose with his criticism, but I agreed to take Aagog and Blacky with me. Blacky was way up the pyramid, perched upon the upper row of slits, but immediately flew down to me, when I summoned her. It was hard to know how much Blacky saw and reported back to Odin. I hoped she hadn't seen the purple diamond in Hermione's hand. I thought, perhaps I merely hoped, that my body had blocked Blacky's view.
The short stairs made the walk down the stairs from the balcony awkward. I felt as though I always needed to actively brake my descent, lest I overstep the edge of a stair. A fall would be a nasty affair, as this stairway was even steeper than the one inside our own pyramid. It was straight down, without the turns which allowed a less steep course in our pyramid. Catta was having no difficulty, suggesting that these might very well be Elf stairs.
We walked all the way to the bottom, before encountering a portal. The bottom of the stairs provided a nice, wide landing of finished stones, with portals on both sides and a larger portal directly in front of us. I just stood and stretched for several minutes. My calves and thighs were sore from the constant need to brake my almost fall down the stairs.
Logic said that if a path to the outside existed, it was through either the portal to my left or the one straight in front of me. The third portal likely led back to the floor of the pyramid, although I didn't recall seeing a corresponding portal on the pyramid side. After fighting the little stone steps, my mind latched onto the big portal straight ahead of us. This was the only portal that had a place to put my ring, which was conveniently placed for a Witch. I touched my ring to the unlabeled spot. The Odin Silver door immediately slid up into the ceiling.
A slight breeze wafted fresh air across my face, but I was staring out into the darkness of a night with no moon or stars. Since I had promised Harry that I wouldn't leave the pyramid, I merely stood in back of the portal and lobbed balls of light as far into the night as I could. With my new and improved wand and a big assist from Black Stone-power, I was able to chuck a very bright ball of light close to a hundred feet beyond the pyramid. There was nothing taller than six-inch high grass between me and the light. It took half a minute for the light to fade. Nothing wandered into sight during that time.
I stood staring into the blackness for several minutes, before it dawned on me that none of the doors in this pyramid had slid shut automatically. I touched my ring once more to the indentation in the marble panel and the door whisked down, striking the floor with a loud thud. I took a moment to whisper a report to Harry. I amended my report, when Aagog clambered up my body and onto my shoulder to whisper that she could detect no animal smells on the incoming breeze. At least I knew that there was air out there, that it was breathable, and that no corporeal beings were waiting at the entrance to devour anything foolish enough to leave the safety of the pyramid. Oh yes, since there was grass, it must get bright out there at some time. I would have to check back later.
I turned my attention to the other portal, which might lead to the outside, although I was more than a little surprised that it was located only ten feet from the portal I had already explored. What sort of dispute would lead to a human-sized door right next to an Elf-sized door? I leaned down and touched my ring to the depression next to the second door. A second later the door rushed upward and… light flooded in? How was that even possible?
On second look, I saw the light had a reddish tinge to it. Could sunrise come so suddenly? This world must be totally flat. I again felt a breeze, although this time against my legs. Once again, Aagog climbed up me to whisper into my ear, "animals are outside. I investigate."
Aagog's spot by my ear was taken by Blacky, who also told me that she was going to explore this new world. I didn't want to leave my companions stranded outside the pyramid, so I drew my wand and guarded the portal. Barb also had her wand pointed at the world beyond. I whispered to Harry, telling him that sunrise had arrived in the space of a couple of minutes. Catta wanted to take "just a very quick look outside."
I granted permission, telling her that I wanted her back and reporting to me within five minutes. She was back in three.
"There is a building, very close on the left. A growling animal is chained next to the house. There are very strange trees and a mountain behind the building. I saw nothing else close to us, but I smelled a different animal than the one that growls."
I also relayed this news to Harry. He said he wanted the portal closed. I told him that I couldn't do that, until Blacky and Aagog returned. Harry told me to summon them. I tried. Blacky returned, Aagog did not. Blacky had a most surprising message.
"This is Asgard, he told me. Not Odin's lands, but Asgard. It is red grass part of Asgard."
I thought the 'red grass' was just an illusion caused by the rising sun, but Blacky opened her beak and dropped several leaves of the red grass into my palm. Alright, it did look just like what we had seen on one side of Odin's palace. If this was Asgard, then Odin should know that he had easy access to my world. Why had he not mentioned this?
As I was trying to figure out whether or not Blacky had just disqualified Odin as someone I could trust, Aagog returned and climbed up my body.
"I climb up pyramid. Black Stone stops at the top of pyramid. There is small building attached to other side of pyramid. All around is plain of red grass. Just two buildings and growling wolf-thing in sight."
I closed the portal and whispered my update to Harry. Harry said to come back to the floor of the pyramid. I told him that's likely exactly where door number three would lead me, but that the next thing I intended to do was to explore where that portal would take me.
As I approached the third portal, Barb expressed her concerns to me. "Why didn't Odin retrieve the purple diamond himself? If that really was Asgard, he could have come here as easily as we did. We've thought he wanted us to do his dangerous dirty work, but getting the diamond wasn't at all dangerous. You should be very careful. There is a hidden danger here that we have missed and Odin must know about. Perhaps it's a trap that only Odin can trip, but if the goal is to protect the diamond, then it makes no sense to allow you to just walk in and out as Odin's agent."
"It makes no sense to me either," I admitted, taking a moment to warn Harry to be on maximum alert, with wands ready, while I explored door number three. "Remember the speculation that the purple diamond would bind those who touched it to BeyondWorld? Perhaps Odin thought it impossible to carry the diamond away from this pyramid. He seems bold enough to at least try. I guess we are his attempt. Okay I'm ready to defend you. Open the portal."
I opened the portal. The portal did not lead back to the floor of the pyramid. It opened into a twilight world. There was enough light to see, but everything was dark grey. The ground looked like a mirror surface of light grey. Large sheets of different colored glass floated off in two directions in front of me. One was light grey. The second was a very dark red, like the darkest garnet or rose I had ever seen. I felt no breeze, but got a sense of cold in front of me. I knew what I must do. I closed the door and apparated us back to the floor of the pyramid.
The whole team huddled together on the pyramid floor to debate the significance of what I had seen.
"We are in the ultimate world-between-worlds," Hermione told us. "I wouldn't be at all surprised if door number three leads to an airless world. Likely the same sort of magical barrier that Odin uses as windows, protects the third portal from the cold airlessness of the space between worlds. You could force your way through the barrier, but that would court death. We'd need special equipment to do that. The two other worlds you saw also looked like dead worlds, but they might lead to useful places."
"I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't other worlds floating outside that door, which I would have seen if I could walk outside and look around."
"And it's a very good thing you were smart enough not to do that," Dad told me.
We were seated on the floor near the small circle. As I turned my attention in that direction, I saw that Cho had done some dismantling in my absence. One of the silicon crystals and two of the clear crystals were missing. Looking around, I saw them stacked on the floor, behind Hermione.
"We can put them back if you want," Hermione told me. "I thought it would be all too easy to quickly re-energize this circle, if someone came here with a purple diamond. I also wanted to inspect the bases of the crystals."
I got her message, telling her, "yes I think you should put them back. You might be the one who wants to re-activate the circle."
I suggested that we wait a few hours to see if daylight arrived outside portal number one, and then return to Hogwarts to plan what we should do next. There was grumbling, but after I received support from Hermione, Cho, and Tony, the rest of the group agreed.
While we waited, Tendra told me about her explanation of the balconies and control landing, ending with the very definite conclusion, "these things were not built by Goblins. It is not our style, even if we do the work for others."
