If Only…

Lucien stepped through the doorway fully expecting his little dove to be there in the living room waiting for him, nested up as she usually was with blanket and computer working on another commission. He was disappointed to see the room empty. He tossed his keys in his hand and looked through the kitchen and sun room just beyond, they were occupied only by the small orange cat.

He looked for some note saying she was going out and found nothing, then went down the hall to the bedroom. There he struck gold, the quivering mass of plush blankets heaped up on the bed could only be that little freeze baby. He lifted the first set of covers and found nothing, then dug under the thicker bed set. His hand found something soft and warm, and he peeked under it. Even with curtains drawn he could just see her curled up under all that cotton and down wearing her flannel night clothes.

"Your letting in cold air." She grumbled.

"Come now, it barely 50 outside and a good 66 in here."

She muttered something pulled the blankets tighter around her. Lucien smiled a little and crawled underneath the covers, expensive clothes and all, and tried to snuggle up against her. She was in a near ball and it was hard to get her to relax, he'd just have to wait and let the extra body heat do its work.

"For someone who can not stand cold weather you live in an odd place." He said in her ear.

"No choice, I was born here."

She started to stretch out her legs and he put on of his between them. With his arms around her she did warm up fast and soon turned over to get closer to him.

"There, that's it." He whispered, "Warm now?"

She opened her eyes and brushed fingers against the plasma screen.

"Warm yes, but still lonely."

Lucien's image smiled, he always smiled when he was upset. He pressed his hands against the stones that allowed him to see her, to both of them it looked like they were only on the other side of a pane of glass, something that could be broken, shattered and finally allow them to touch. Lucien raked his nails against the stone as his girl placed her cheek against the screen.

"Lucien?"

"Yes?" his finger gingerly touched the place where her cheek met the barrier.

"Do you think the Spire is powerful enough to open a door?" she brought her face away from the barrier and looked straight into his eyes.

"Could you try to make a way open now? I know you have Will, with the Spire to channel energy could you get here?"

Lucien shook his head.

"The Spire is incomplete…"

"The Spire let us see each other and talk to each other. And it did that without any command. Even though its not finished I think it can do this." She grew more excited with every word but he still doubted.

"Lucien, aren't you tired of looking at me through some half formed portal? I sure as hell am. Please, at least try."

Lucien lifted his head and looked at her, pressed against the barrier. He was tired of just talking too, tired of spinning fantasies of what they'd do if they could actually reach and touch. This girl had helped him close wounds that he thought would weep and bleed everyday of his life. He wanted to be close to her, hold her to him, caress her skin, stroke her hair, he wanted to bring her so close to him their bodies nearly became one.

Yet the magic she spoke of was one even Garth had little grasp of. He essentially had to create a brand new Cullis Gate. The Gates were made in the Old Kingdom and no one, no one had made a single gate since. It was the one piece of Old Kingdom technology that clung to its secrets once the ancients died. But he felt determined now, he was rebuilding the greatest creation of the Old Kingdom, now he looked to surpass them by creating a gate out of thin air, to another shard of existence.

Lucien racked his brain for every bit of information he'd absorbed about the gates and their magic. There was precious little there but he knew a few things. A Cullis Gate had to be on a ley line, the fed it magic to operate and it was along that line a person actually traveled. Besides that, the Gate needed a twin. There cannot be one Cullis Gate not only is it useless but there is no destination gate Will power gets drained and the gate becomes inactive.

Her position had to be on a ley line, had to be or else they would not be able to see each other. He looked around for something, anything that he had in his world that might correspond to something in hers. He looked back to her, and then behind her. There was a closet door just out of sight, a simple swinging wooden door, very much like the one on his tall wardrobe.

He rushed over to it and quickly threw his clothes onto his bed, emptying out his wardrobe completely, then closed the door on it again. Lucien had no natural instincts for magic like Garth did, every spell required thought and force, he had to make these energies in his body bend to his will. He pressed his hands to the wood and lowered his head, summoning every last drop of Will he'd been painstakingly storing for years.

He stripped his gloves away and ran his bare hands down the wood, ingraining the same symbols he saw on every Cullis Gate into this door. He concentrated on the door in her world, pushing his mind further to force mirror symbols onto it as well. An odd smell could her attention, something between burning wood and the smell of fireworks. She turned around and saw glowing blue lights searing strange symbols into her closet door.

"By heaven, it's working." She whispered in awe.

Lucien's mind was at its ragged limits trying to reach through the fabric of existence to create this portal, all his powers of Will and concentration were being sapped. Finally he completed the ring of symbols, his hands met at the bottom of the door and he allowed himself to relax. The two gates were made but now he needed to empower them. He sat on his knees and put his hands to the floor, feeling the living pulse of the Spire.

Each pulse brought an unfathomable amount of Will into the structure. He pulled this magic from the stones, replenishing his own reserves. He then slowly lifted his arms and directed his palms towards the center of the door, and commanded electricity to fly from his hand to the door. Instead of burning the wood the magic was absorbed, and the runes he'd inscribed on them began to glow and pulse.

Lucien stood up, more than a little drained but swelling with pride, that he'd been able to trump the greatest Will users of the Old Kingdom, and excitement, finally he could do more than just stare at her and talk to her. He pressed his ear to the door and tapped it. Answering taps came from the other side.

"Can you hear me?"

"Yes." Her voice was faint but he still heard it.

"I'm going to open it now, stand back."

He wasn't sure if she did step back but he opened the door regardless. He wardrobe door swung out and he was met with another door of darker wood, her closet door. He grabbed the handle of it and slowly opened it, swinging it out and poking his head through. She was standing a few steps back, wrapped up in a plush blanket, her sparkling like the brightest jewels. His breath caught and he reached out to her and ever so lightly stroked her cheek with his bare fingers.

He opened his mouth to say her name, but nothing came out. He couldn't breath, he felt like his lungs were filling with molten metal. He gagged and gasped, clutched his throat and tumbled back into his room in the Spire. She dove after him, through the door.

"Lu…" she choked as he head came through into his world and had to throw herself back out, instinct took over and she slammed the door shut, then stumbled back over to the TV. She caught her breath again and as she gasped she saw Lucien also regaining himself.

"What…happened?" her voice was raspy like a raven's croak, and her throat felt like someone had taken a power sander to it.

Lucien only shook his head, and she fell let herself fall back a bit.

"Air." She said, "We breath different air."

"What?" his voice was no better than hers, his skin still tinged slightly blue.

"Our atmospheres, your air is poisonous to me, mine is toxic to you."

"No." Lucien shook his head more violently and went back to the door.

"Lucien no!"

As he re opened his door his hand brushed something soft and warm. Her blanket had fallen off her shoulders and had become wedged in the doors. He picked up this thing; it was perfectly matched to her odd personality. Most girls had pink and fluffy things to wrap up in; she had a black blanket covered in grinning jack-o-lanterns. He sucked in a breath and opened her door a crack and yanked the blanket through, and closed it and his again quickly.

He slowly walked over to the stones that held her image, holding the still warm blanket to his face, relishing the softness and taking a deep whiff of the scent. It smelled of clean linen, hinted with cinnamon and lilac blooms. He eyes opened and it occurred to him that it was odd that they should have the same flowers in her world. No, not odd, unfair. It wasn't fair that they should have the same flowers, the same language, the same days and nights, the same seasons, the same land and trees, the same hands, the same eyes, the same faces, and not be able to breath the same air.

Lucien lifted his face from the blanket and smiled at her.

"Why?" he said, his voice now hoarse because of tears threatening to break through.

"I don't know." Her own eyes glistened and one salty tear ran down her cheek. They reached out and ran fingers against the solid surfaces that kept them apart.

"If only…" neither was sure from whose lips those poignant words slipped.