Wild cards
Chapter 12

…

"So, ya got it?"

"Nope."

Having found himself pitched into the realm infernal, after being attacked by five murderous wizards Harry felt he was coping pretty well. He'd avoided passing out. He hadn't cried or wet his pants despite an overwhelming urge to do both. He had babbled incoherently for a couple minutes but he was better now.

"I'm just having trouble wrapping my head around it" Harry said as he followed behind Andrew.

"Which parts?"

"All of them" said Harry.

"At least your speaking actual words now."

Harry nodded, "I'm past the babbling."

"Good, good" said Andrew, leading them past a row of jagged stones, "why don't we try a different approach?"

Harry nodded, glad for any distraction from the ungodly heat.

"What is this?" asked Andrew, holding up the item responsible for their current predicament.

"A D jack" Harry answered.

"Which is?"

"An artifact of the D walkers that allowed them to travel to different dimensions."

"Good so far" said Andrew ducking under a ledge as he walked, "and on the topic of dimensions, this one is?"

"The one they send all naughty children who won't eat their vegetables."

Andrew tried to scowl at his travel companion, but he couldn't keep from cracking up at the grinning little wizard.

"It's good to see this ordeal hasn't negatively affected your sense of humor" Andrew quipped.

And why would it, Harry thought. He may have been as close to hell as any living person ever had been, but it was still better than the Dursley's.

"So, infernal realm, home to all manner of fiend and various things that burn."

"That I get" said Harry, "what I don't get is why 'it' brought us 'here'."

"I do unfortunately" said Andrew, "this D jack was passed from one of the original D walkers to his apprentice. That apprentice, not without skill, was an arrogant braggart nowhere near as good as he claimed."

"And now he's dead" Harry added.

Andrew nodded, "He liked to run at the mouth. It was only a matter of time."

"And why we ended up here?" Harry prodded.

"Right, right, I was getting to that" said Andrew, "this apprentice was always partial to fiend type monsters and magic given how strong they are on the attack. So, it comes as no surprise that when I activated it the D jack brought us to the last dimension it had jacked from."

"So, you weren't trying to bring us here?"

"I didn't know where I was bringing us" said Andrew, "I just knew it had to be better than where we were."

"Dangerous and stupid" said Harry remembering what Andrew had said back in the shop.

"Truth? This is not the worst place we could have ended up."

"Well that's comforting" it totally wasn't, "so, where are we going."

"There's a town up here a way" said Andrew, "someone there I need to see."

"Okay, then we can go back?"

Andrew stopped and Harry looked at the older man nervously.

"Harry, please don't freak out on me."

"Whyyyyyy?"

"That portal I opened was with a universal command, it would have worked on any D jack. Unfortunately, I don't have one that can take us strait back and since I don't know how he had this D jack set up…"

Harry could not believe what he was hearing, "You mean we're stuck here?"

"No" Andrew stated firmly, "We just need to reset it, then I'll be able to use the standard commands to open a portal out of here."

"Back to Earth?"

"Not right away" he said, "we'll probably have to pop around a few other dimensions first."

"But, we will get back?"

"Oh yeah, definitely."

Harry breathed a sigh of relief, then coughed when the scorching air dried out his windpipe.

They came in sight of the town shortly after. It didn't look especially large, maybe as big as Diagon Alley.

Walking into the town Harry was surprised by how normal the place looked. Normal for a 16th century English hamlet. The only thing Harry found strange were the people. They weren't actually people, they were demons.

Fiends as Andrew had called them and the strangest thing about them was how not strange they were. They had red skin in various shades. They had horns and hooves and tails and wings, not all on any one fiend, yet they walked around doing perfectly normal things.

They fed the dog… thing. They watered the flowers, which burst into flames. There were even a group of little ones chasing a hoop with a stick. It was all so bizarre yet normal which made it that much more bizarre, ly normal.

"Y'alright Harry?"

Harry shook his head to clear the cobwebs, "Not what I was expecting."

"Folks are pretty laid back out her in the boony's" said Andrew, "the big cities are another story."

Harry remembered his one trip to the city with the Dursley's. He immediately wished he hadn't.

"Here it is" said Andrew stopping before a nondescript building, "I'm gonna pop in here for a bit, shouldn't be more than a couple minutes."

"Okay."

"Don't run off."

"I won't" Harry assured.

Andrew stepped inside leaving Harry on his own, all by himself, completely unattended. The group of imps playing with the ring eyed him curiously.

"Andrew, long time no see."

The rail thin fiend with the curled ram horns set his quill aside to greet his guest.

"Ciaphus, you're looking well."

"Life in the country agrees with me" the old scribe said, "I must say I was not expecting to see you."

"Would you have been less surprised if I'd been Simeon?"

"I would have" the fiend said, "He came through here often."

"He won't be anymore" said Andrew, placing the D jack on the fiend's desk.

The fiends countenance turned grave, "I see."

"Not sure who did him but that wound up in the hands of the young man outside who brought it to me. He was followed by five nasties, who then attacked us."

"I take it you used this to escape" Andrew nodded, "and now need me to reset the device so you can use it."

"Right in one" said Andrew.

"Fine, fine, I can do that. Of course, I'm not about to do it for free."

"Not sure what I can give you Ciaphus, I didn't exactly plan for this trip."

"You still have that."

Andrew looked to his belt where the fiend was pointing, "Well look at that."

It was a small rectangular box like attachment clipped to his belt. Pressing down one of the circles on top it popped out and he drew the thin black six-inch wand from its case.

"Totally forgot I put this on this morning" he said honestly, "you know this is just a scanning wand though."

The fiend nodded, "Scan me."

"Seriously?"

"I like to spread myself around. Feeds my ego."

Andrew chuckled then made a circular gesture at the old devil. There was a gentle chime from his case.

"So, that's it?"

Ciaphus nodded, "It'll take me about an hour to reset the device. You'll probably want to check in on your little friend, before they eat him."

"They?"

They turned out to be a pack of young imps. Harry was rolling around on the ground with one while the others were shouting and cheering in a circle around them.

Andrew casually waved his wand at the group as he watched. He could have intervened, but it didn't look like he needed to.

Harry got on top of his opponent and struck a vicious blow across his face. The imp yelped and tried to escape. Harry sat on the struggling fiend, grabbed his leg and pulled. The imp squealed and flailed uselessly.

"Say it!" Harry shouted.

"Uncle Vernon! UNCLE VERNON! uncle vernon" the loser wept.

Harry stood and threw his arms up in victory. The onlookers cheered wildly.

"What? Is that all?"

The imps made a collective yelp at being caught then proceeded to flee in manic fashion. One little female stopped to turn back and wave goodbye before disappearing with the rest.

Andrew looked at Harry who just grinned back, "So, what started this?"

Harry shrugged, "I forget."

Andrew just shook his head and chuckled, "We've got about an hour before the D jack is ready."

"Okay. So, what're we gonna do?"

"Teach you to summon."

"What!?"

Andrew grinned at his reaction, "You heard me."

"But, I don't know how to do magic."

"No better time to learn than when your life might depend on it."

Harry looked like he might start panicking so Andrew gave him a moment to collect himself while he found a seat.

"Ready now?"

"I… I don't know" he admitted.

"Don't worry, your duel board is like your wand. It's a focus. Unlike your wand it's a specific focus, designed to channel your magic into the cards."

"So, the board does the work."

"Most of it" said Andrew, "if we were trying to teach you to summon without the board, that would probably be unreasonable. This'll be easy by comparison."

"Alright. What do I do?"

"Grab a seat, and let's get started."

… 1 hour later

"Andrew, just in time."

"It's ready?"

"Indeed it is" the fiend said handing the wizard the coin, "what happened to him?"

Andrew shifted his burden as he took the offered object, "Rookie mistake. He dismissed his summon too hard and the backlash knocked him out."

Ciaphus gave Harry an appraising look, "That young and already summoning?"

"One of us has to, and I don't have my cards."

"You 'just' taught him?"

Andrew nodded, "I didn't actually think he'd be able to get it in an hour. He surprised me."

"Interesting" Ciaphus mumbled to himself, "So, you'll be going then?"

Andrew nodded.

"Then may I suggest the tip of the spire on Fire Lake Island. There's a thin spot there that should take you to Oshana port on Correal."

"Doesn't Magdalene have a portal gate there."

"Which used to connect to the one on the spire till it was destroyed, hence the thin spot."

"Thanks."

Ciaphus watched the two humans leave. He wondered if he should have told them why the portal was destroyed, or more importantly by what. Perhaps some warning of the other things that had taken up residence since then might have been in order.

The old fiend pondered for a moment, then shrugged and went back to his work.