Gus shot up in his bed, waking up gasping for air and panting from his dream. He then flopped back down as he let his heart rate and breathing return to normal.
"Man," He sighed to himself, "it's been a while since I've had that dream."
Slowly a smile started to form on his face.
"Way too long. I gotta start trying to see if I can somehow get it more."
Gus rolled onto his side, grabbed his phone and his scroll and checked for messages. When he glanced at the time and saw it was much later than he normally woke up, he shrugged it off because it wasn't a big deal and frankly made sense. He was the one who decided to work so late.
After checking all his notifications, he rolled out of bed, stuck his phone in his pocket and held his scroll, and began his morning routine. He texted with Matt between showering, brushing his teeth, getting dressed, and doing his skincare routine and makeup. As he scrolled through the news in the kitchen of his apartment, he looked out the window towards the beautiful, bright pink morning sky. He smiled softly as he watched various demons flying across the sky.
Once he got to the end of his news recap, he went to the entryway of his apartment, grabbed his bag, checked to make sure everything was in it, and put on his concealment stone earrings. He put his scroll in his bag and slipped his phone in his pocket as he did a quick check to make sure the stones were working. When he verified they worked, he turned to his door, unlocked the fake lock and the real lock, opened the door, and stepped out onto the concrete hallway outside his apartment. He closed the door, locked both the real and fake locks, and looked out towards the beautiful, bright blue morning sky. He smiled widely as he watched the various birds and planes flying across the sky.
Gus walked across the concrete walkway that wrapped around the apartment complex, went down the stairs, and grabbed his bike from the bike rack. He grabbed his helmet from the basket, put it on, and rode off into town. He went at a nice, leisurely pace, wanting to take his time since the work for the day wasn't that urgent.
Since he was in charge of Demon Realm-Human Realm relations, and was the only one with enough knowledge and power to do so, he was basically his own boss. He wasn't lazy or took advantage of his position, in fact multiple times Eda, who was technically in charge of the department, had told him he didn't need to work so much, but he liked to take his days slow, at least at first. The job gave him lots of privileges to help him out. He had an apartment in the human and demon realm, was in charge of portal distribution, got to invent new tech that would better the two realms and access between them, and got a decently sized monthly budget of both snails and dollars. He was the one who created the portal door that could be both a portal door and a regular door, the same type of door his apartment had, the fake lock working as a way to turn the portal function on and off. He also had created a tracker that could detect portal use and track who made which ones, utilizing the detection of strong concentrations of Titan's blood in a wide range.
Gus soon got to downtown Gravesfield and headed towards the coffee shop. He parked his bike outside the building, went inside, and happily walked over to the counter where his favorite barista, a nice but kinda preppy person with pink streaks in her hair, was working.
"Heya Amber!" Gus said chipperly.
"Gavin! It's been a while. Work been taking you places?" Amber asked curiously.
"All over. You wouldn't believe it. But, I'm able to work here today."
"Getting your usual? Large mocha and a sandwich?"
"Nope! Grabbing stuff for me and my friends today. Work is gonna be fun so I'm mixing it up. I'll take three medium coffees, two regular and one decaf, six mini vanilla scones, and a chocolate chip croissant, warmed. And it's all to go."
"You really are mixing it up." Amber chuckled, typing into the register, "That'll be $21. Just insert your card."
Gus grabbed his wallet from his bag, pulled out his human realm debit card, and put it in the card reader. He put in his pin code then added a 25% tip, which got a small smile from Amber when she saw him add that. He scribbled his signature and slipped his card back in his wallet when the machine beeped.
"Would you like your receipt?"
"Yes please."
"Alright," Amber said, printing the receipt, "I'll get your order out to you soon. It'll be on the other end of the counter. Enjoy!"
"Thanks! You too!"
Gus instantly noticed what he said and awkwardly laughed, internally cringing at himself. He grabbed his receipt and sped walked over to a table by the end of the counter as he waited. Thankfully, it didn't take long for Amber to call his name and he went over. When he grabbed his stuff, he noticed the bag with the croissant had a phone number written on it.
"If you're interested, I get off at 5." Amber said with a soft smirk.
"Oh, oh. Sorry but, I'm not looking for a relationship." Gus explained with an awkward chuckle, face flushing slightly.
"Oh. Uh, sorry." Amber apologized, mildly embarrassed, "I had no idea. You got a boyfriend or a girlfriend or something already?"
"No, just not looking for anything. Work keeps me too busy and on the move. But I can text you some time if you just want to hang out." Gus suggested with a shrug.
"I'd like that. Thanks. And sorry for…you know."
"Hey, it's no big deal. You didn't know. No need to be embarrassed."
"You're right. I'm not the one who said "you too" when receiving something." Amber said with a smirk.
Gus chuckled, grabbed the croissant and held it in his mouth, tucked the bag in his pocket, held the drink holder in one hand, and grabbed the bag with the mini scones in the other. He waved goodbye to Amber and she waved back. He left the coffee shop, went to his bike, and carefully placed the drink holder in the basket and the bag of scones in the space where the empty slot on the holder was. He kicked up the kickstand of the bike and began to ride again, going along the side of the road as he peddled through town, out of the downtown area and closer to Old Gravesfield. Occasionally, a hand left one of the bike handles to readjust the warm chocolate chip croissant in his mouth to take a bite.
Thankfully, the town wasn't too big and it didn't take long for Gus to pull up to his second stop of the day. He slowed to a stop outside the building, took a final bite of his croissant, and grabbed the bag of mini scones and drink holder out of his bike basket and walked up to the building. He pushed the door open and walked inside, mildly surprised to see that there was nobody there, not even at the front desk. However, his confusion quickly went away.
"I'll be there in a sec!" a voice called from underneath the desk.
"Oh, no, take your time. It's not like I need to talk to you for work or anything." Gus said jokingly.
There was a sudden slam from under the desk, the unmistakable sound of someone trying to get up while forgetting there is a solid object above their head. After a few seconds, the one Gus was hoping for did emerge, rubbing the back of their head as they had a pained expression.
"I know you always get excited to see me, Masha, but maybe prioritize not hitting your head over greeting me quickly." Gus said with a chuckle.
"Kind as ever. I see you got coffee. Didn't get any sleep or are you treating little old me?" Masha said with a smirk, getting situated in their desk chair.
"I know I get more sleep than you, so don't act like I'm the one with the caffeine addiction. Yes, I did get one for you. Also some mini scones. Don't take them all, still have another stop after this."
Gus went over to the desk, handed Masha one of the coffees, and the bag of scones. They were quick to grab a scone from the bag and take a swig of their coffee, cringing slightly at the flavor. They opened up a desk drawer and pulled out creamer cups, sugar packets, and coffee stirrers. They took the lid off their coffee and poured in what felt like, even to Gus, an excessive amount of creamer and sugar. Gus did grab a couple creamers and one pack of sugar and added it to his coffee. Once they both had their coffee to their personal standards, Masha grabbed a folding chair and handed it to Gus.
"So, you got what I asked for?" Gus asked once he finished his coffee and sat down.
"Yep! Address and coordinates, as well as some info I was able to get on the place." Masha said, setting down her coffee, reaching under the desk, and pulling out a file and handing it to Gus, "Not really sure why you want to go there, but I'm not going to get in the way of your job."
"Thanks." Gus said with a smile, taking the file and putting it down with his bag on the ground next to his chair, "You know, if you wanted you could always become my intern. Good pay, great benefits, and you'd be able to travel between the realms more. And you don't need to worry about coworkers because I'm currently the only one in the whole department."
"I'm all good. I'm fine having my own portal that Vee and I can use. And this place has decent benefits. Besides, it's not like I can tell my parents that I quit my steady job at the museum I've worked at for years to instead be an ambassador between, not countries, but between this realm and a realm of witches and demons."
There was a pause as Masha grabbed another scone from the bag and took another sip of her coffee.
"Speaking of portals…" Masha began, looking at Gus with a hopeful expression, slightly tainted with sadness.
"I don't have any word from Vee." Gus sighed, instantly knowing where Masha was going with that topic, "The second I do I'll let you know. Have you got any texts from her?"
"No, I haven't. I've texted her, but nothing. Not even read."
"Well I'm sure she's fine. She's never gotten this mad before, so we're just as confused as you are. But hopefully she won't need too much longer."
"It's been two days, Gus. Two days since that council meeting. I don't know, I just don't want her to start doing something she shouldn't. She didn't tell me about the proposal in the first place, so it's not like she wouldn't hide something from me."
Gus scooted his chair over to Masha and gave them a side hug, which they appreciated.
"You want to see something new I've been working on?" Gus asked, trying to get Masha's mind on something else.
"Sure." Masha said, perking up.
Gus smiled and dug through his bag before pulling out an eye dropper of a dark blue liquid in a protective case Masha instantly recognized as Titan's blood and a golden metal disk. Gus opened up the folder and entered the coordinates Masha gave him into a small screen in the middle of the disk. He stood up and walked up to the wall right next to the front doors, took the eyedropper out of the case, held the disk flat on his hand, and dripped a few drops of Titan's blood onto the disk. The liquid seeped through the slits along the side of the disk and there was a click as the disk expanded slightly, four sections now becoming visible. Gus tossed the disk onto the wall, it stuck to it, then the sections expanded out to form a gold frame. There was a flicker, then a look into the in-between, then a clear look of where the coordinates were.
"I present to you, the compact portal door." Gus said, very confident and excited.
Masha stood up in amazement and even clapped.
"There are still some kinks to work out, it's still in its beta version, but this is what I have. Thought you'd appreciate being able to witness the first test that wasn't just me and a camera."
"This is incredible!" Masha said, still in awe of the invention.
"Yep! Now not only are these portal doors way more portable, but they're also way easier to sneak around. Only issue is that they're single use as of right now. Once they close, they sort of just crumble and turn to ash. Though honestly, that bug could become a feature if I could figure out a way to make the disintegration go away on its own or leave behind as little as possible."
"Keep me posted. That sounds super handy." Masha said with a smile.
Gus slung his bag back over his shoulder, grabbed the last coffee and the bag of remaining scones in one hand with the folder in the other. He walked over to the door, happy at how well the door was holding up.
"See you, Masha. If there's any updates on Vee, I'll let you know. I'll keep an eye out on portal uses for you."
"Thanks Gus. Hope things go well at your final stop." Masha said with a soft smile.
"They should at the least go well, at least for me." He said with a smirk.
The two waved at each other and Gus walked through the portal. As he turned around, he heard the portal door collapse behind him. He glanced at the address on the folder and the image Masha had added to help him but when he looked around he realized that wasn't necessary as the whole culdesac Gus was standing in was bulldozed and undeveloped except for a single one-story house with boarded up windows, an unkempt lawn, and keep out signs that most would assume was abandoned but Gus knew was the right place because of the barely visible security cams and the faint streams of light visible through the boards and the thick curtains. And, on a closer look, there were packages shoved under the rocking chair on the porch that almost perfectly blended in with the dark tan wood of the chair that Gus was convinced was only there to hide packages and served no other use.
This was definitely the right place.
Gus walked up to the door less cautious than most would and rang the doorbell, one with a speaker and camera in it. He heard a loud buzzer play inside the house and there was the sound of shuffling feet.
"Place the package under the chair like I told you to on the app." An obviously intentionally distorted voice said through the speaker.
"Not a delivery service. I'm here to speak with you." Gus said, putting on a serious tone to not give anything away.
"Tell Gustavo I'll get the rent by the end of the week!"
"Also not the landlord. Or a gang member. I'm here to talk and I think you'd be interested."
There was a pause, like they were thinking about what Gus said.
"Are you a cop?" They eventually asked, voice sounding hesitant even with the distortion.
"No, and before you ask, I'm not FBI either. I'm from a private government organization, fully funded and with high levels of autonomy. We specialize in research and innovation in very specific areas. Ones I believe you will be interested in."
"And what would that be?"
"We do lots of work with things like inter-realm transportation and communication, demonology, magic…and witches."
With that last word, Gus heard the speaker click off and heard the sounds of someone running through the house, loud footsteps coming to the door. There was the sound of clicks coming from an obscene amount of locks unlocking on the other side of the door. Finally, the door swung open and revealed a tall man with scraggly brown hair pulled back in a messy bun and stubble on his face, wearing glasses with one of the lenses cracked, dressed in stained sweatpants, a wrinkly button up, and an untied tie, wearing slippers and tall socks with aliens on them. He was also holding a gun that Gus couldn't identify.
"Jacob Hopkins?" Gus asked, verifying the man's identity.
"Yes, that's me. Now come in before they hear you."
Gus knew it'd be pointless to ask who "they" were, so he just went with it as Jacob dragged him through the front door, slammed it shut, and re-locked the over a dozen locks on the door. When Jacob finished with that, he tossed the gun in an umbrella basket by the door carelessly, led Gus over to some couches, and sat down on one. Gus sat down on the one across from him after brushing off the seat and pulling down one of the ratty blankets over the cushion, not out of vanity but because he had no idea how infested with pests the house was and didn't want to take any risks.
As Gus looked around, he noticed all the theories, papers, news articles, and tacks connected with string that covered the walls. There was a single outlet that had a strip of plugs that was absolutely full and a definite fire hazard next to an expensive looking computer with a webcam. The floors were covered in garbage and things that probably fell off the walls. Where there weren't papers, there were filing cabinets and dry erase boards. Books were stacked atop all the cabinets and, based on the spines Gus could see, covered everything from multiverse theories and black holes to demonology and the history of the witch hunts. In almost every corner were security cameras that, when Gus noticed them, he subtly drew a spell circle and had a looping short illusion of he and Jacob sitting on the couches over the lenses.
Gus took the last coffee from the cup holder and the bag of remaining scones and placed them on the coffee table between he and Jacob, who eyed them suspiciously.
"They're from Robin's Roost." Gus said, trying to assure him, "You drink decaf?"
After a pause, Jacob took the paper cup and took a cautious sip. After seemingly verifying if it was drugged or not, he began to actually drink it. While he drank it and ate the scones, Gus just sat there and looked at his phone. When Jacob finished, he cleared his throat to get Gus' attention.
"So I know what your job is, but I don't know who you are. Care to enlighten me?" Jacob asked.
"All in good time, Mr. Hopkins. Or would you rather go by just Jacob?" Gus said, trying to hide how giddy he was at being able to act so professional.
"Mr. Hopkins is perfect. I haven't been called that since college."
"College? What did you go there for? Cryptology, perhaps?"
"Nah. Quantum physics. I was great at it too! Got into Yale with a bunch of scholarships and kept my grades high. But, when I found my first piece of evidence of the demon realm, I knew I had to focus on that. So I dropped out in my third year, moved from New Haven to Gravesfield, got an apartment and a job at the historical society, and got to work."
Gus was taken aback with how genuinely smart Jacob apparently was, especially to get into an Ivy League college, and how dedicated he was that he dropped out and moved just to look more into the demon realm. The dedication was admirable, even if he was pretty incompetent as far as magic understanding goes.
"If you'd be so kind as to enlighten me as to your knowledge of this demon realm, I'd much appreciate that. I don't want to repeat information you already know and, you could very well know things even I don't that could change my reasoning for being here."
"Really? Oh. Wow. What do you want to know?" Jacob asked, excited that this was actually happening and he could finally talk to a professional about his work.
"Everything. But, abridged please. You've been working on this for over, what, fifteen years? And we don't have all day."
"Gladly." Jacob said with a smirk.
He got up from the couch, went over to the closest wall, and went to the side of a corkboard covered in papers and sticky notes with pen scribbles and highlighted bits all over.
"Many people know about the idea of the multiverse, alternate universes if you will. While this is popular, in my research of it in college I formulated a different proposal. Not alternate universes, but parallel universes. Many would just say these mean the same thing but while alternate universes are just the same with a few changes, where slightly different choices were made and new outcomes unfolded accordingly, parallel universes are completely different universes that run parallel to our own. And they're all connected. A less scientific way to describe these is calling them "realms", which I'm personally partial to because it sounds cooler."
"So another name for this demon realm you speak of would be the parallel demon universe?" Gus asked, curious sounding.
"I suppose. But the demon realm isn't the only one. It's not even the only magical one. The west coast has a city just outside LA that is likely connected to a realm that's made of hundreds of its own dimensions. LA itself had an attack from a salamander realm some years ago that, while the government calls it a hoax, I know it's not. And an inconspicuous town in Oregon had a period of 3 months with an intense connection with a realm of pure madness!"
"All of those sound fascinating, but I'm more concerned about the demon realm." Gus said, trying to steer the topic back to what he wanted to know, and what he wanted to see if Jacob knew.
"Of course."
Jacob took the corkboard off of the nails it was hanging on and placed it on the ground, revealing what looked like a timeline covered in notes, additions, and revisions.
"All parallel universes were created at the same time. The equivalent of the big bang in the demon realm spawned many things, but on one of those planets it created, it was made with inherent magic. For a while it would be indistinguishable from earth, but they didn't get dinosaurs. They got Titans. These massive, magical, rageful beings roamed the planet's waters, in constant brawls as they grew bigger and bigger until they could no longer sustain themselves and died. When each one died the water level rose thanks to how much the bodies displaced. And as a bonus these beings, after dying, rose the temperature of the waters as the heat from their decay, eventually making the water boil. The rotting corpses spawned demons. They started off as hulking beasts, as brainless as the warring Titans that made them, but gradually evolved and split off into evolutionary trees. Beasts, bugs, and bipedal demons roamed, but as time passed some of the bipeds became more and more humanoid until they could look similar to how a human would. Now they weren't indistinguishable, their pointy ears, more height, wider range of hair, eye, and skin colors, and, of course, their ability to do magic. While the humanoids have the least magical ability, they were smartest and learned how to utilize their skills. And they became what we know of as witches. These evil beings may seem human but they're just as depraved as their Titan creators, warring with other islands and using their magic for nefarious deeds. But they did their worst in the European middle ages where they began to find ways to cross over to our realm. Our monuments worked as perfect places for them to cross over. The pyramids, stonehenge, the great wall of China, the parthenon, and more worked as centers of magical transportation, mostly thanks to them being made by aliens and thus having supernatural properties that allowed travel between realms.
"The witches spread, leading to mass paranoia and witch trials beginning and spreading, innocent humans being killed in fear of them being witches. As the witches could spin dastardly illusions, they could disguise themselves as humans, making anyone a suspect. Over the centuries they spread and built their own smaller monuments in the form of archways that could hold their portals. In fact, there's one in the sunken graveyard in Old Gravesfield. Thankfully in the 1600s, us humans were able to scare them back to their realm through purging all witches and using complex trails to separate the humans from the witches. Our methods baffled their feeble minds and they had to flee or be caught and killed. Sadly two humans, Philip and Caleb Wittebane were lured away by a witch named Evelyn and never returned. The witches and demons still can come through, I actually caught a demon a long while ago but it was taken from me, but they hardly do anymore. Those savages know that they wouldn't last a day living in this world, even with the witch trials over. And if I ever see a witch or demon again, I'll make sure that it's the last that ever comes through the portals."
Jacob sat back down, looking smug with his full breakdown of how he thought things happened presented to a supposed expert in completion. Gus was in awe of not just how much he got wrong, but also the things he got right. The good and the bad. Half-correct facts sprinkled in with things that were wrong. Jacob was obviously obsessive and a little crazy, but he wasn't stupid. Or, at least not very stupid. The story actually seemed reasonable to what a human would think and, based on all the research hung up around the timeline, was at least loosely based on truth. If Jacob didn't have such an awful reputation and was more charismatic, it would be understandable if he convinced some people.
With all of that out of the way, Gus was now curious on what all Jacob had done with that information. He bet all the junk wasn't just to make the world's closest to truth conspiracy theory. There had to be more that Jacob was doing, and Gus intended to find out.
"I get the sense that you aren't a fan of witches." Gus said coyly, though his tone flew over Jacob's head since he was too busy being excited at explaining his theories.
"Of course not! They're murder happy tricksters who leave human lives in ruins behind them. They're sly and just smart enough to do awful things without being so smart that they can introspect and improve like humans can. It's one of the reasons why they hated us. They knew that even though they had magic, we humans are intellectually superior. We have better strategy, inventing capabilities, and problem solving than they could dream of."
"So since you're so smart and hate witches," Gus said, ignoring the blaring falsehoods and bigotry Jacob was now spewing, "Do you have any ways to counteract their magic? Or even detect their magic to see what's under their spells?"
"Now that you mention it, I actually do. It's just a prototype but that's just because I haven't been able to test it with no witches coming to Gravesfield anymore." Jacob said, standing up and going to his desk.
After some rummaging through his desk drawers, he eventually pulled out a strange machine. It looked like a radiation detector and a handheld metal detector that were disassembled and reassembled into one thing. Cords were sticking out and a massive battery pack looked to be duct taped to the bottom of it. It looked cobbled together and like it could fall apart at any moment, but if it could work, Gus would consider it worthwhile.
"This is my magic detector." Jacob said proudly, "It can detect magical signatures within a 3-meter radius. In theory, that is."
"In theory?" Gus said curiously.
"No matter what I try, short of hooking it up to a car battery, it can't hold for long. When powered with fresh batteries put in this pack, it can last about a minute before the batteries are drained."
"Well that's because you're using non-magical means to find magic." Gus said matter-of-factly, standing up and walking over to Jacob, grabbing his bag as he did, "Human tech can't sustainably be used for magical purposes."
"Well what do you propose? Do you have a magic battery?" Jacob scoffed.
"Close. I have Titan's blood."
Jacob looked at Gus in awe as he pulled out his eyedropper of Titan's blood in its case. Gus smirked, as it had been awhile since he got to show off magic stuff to a human now that Masha was mostly used to things.
"This stuff is the most powerful substance in the demon realm. As the name suggests, it comes from actual Titans. It can do a lot. Act as a strong power source, create portals, purify, and even heal. Of course you need to be magical for it to do those last two things. If someone was half-witch, half-human and drank enough of this, it could push them closer to being more like a witch. If a human was cursed, it could heal them while they were cursed or purify them of their curse completely with enough blood, but when the curse is gone the blood does nothing to them anymore because they're fully human. It'll just work its way out of their system. But that's besides the point. It could hypothetically be combined with a normal battery to give it a boost and last longer, though a battery made of just Titan's blood would be faster. You think you could hook up a smaller battery pack? Around…AA size? I have one that would fit that and if you have a regular AA it should work."
"I can check and see." Jacob said excitedly, hyped at actually getting to use something magical and test his invention for more than a few minutes.
Jacob dug around his piles of stuff as Gus looked through his bag. When his friends saw just how much stuff he carried on him at all times they just wondered why he was carrying half of it around in the first place, but Gus knew it was exactly for situations like this. Specific times when he needed a specific thing.
Jacob did find a battery pack and a fresh AA battery, rewired the invention, hooked up the new pack, and put the battery in. Gus handed him a small casing of Titan's blood that was the right size and Jacob put it in. Gus took a few steps back and waited anxiously to see if it would work. Jacob turned it on and, sure enough, the screen lit up and it started to beep. Jacob was absolutely beaming and began to silently celebrate, which amused Gus. Gus himself was also ecstatic that the machine actually worked, or at least could turn on, but kept all of his excitement in his head with the exception of a wide grin forming on his face.
"Well, are you picking up anything? I hope the Titan's blood isn't throwing off the readings since it's so close."
"I think it might be. I'm catching multiple readings in this area. This stuff made the sensing radius way bigger. But if I can recalibrate the area of detection…"
Jacob trailed off as he turned a few knobs on the machine, fine tuning the detection area so that it wouldn't pick up the source of pure magic right next to it. However, even after making it so it wouldn't pick it up, the machine was still beeping to indicate close by magic, just softer. Jacob's face morphed into one of confusion.
"I think this thing is still uncalibrated properly. I'm getting a signal from your bag, but also you." Jacob said, "And a few points in the room, where the security cameras are, are having similar readings as it's giving for you, just softer."
As Jacob stared at the readings the magic detector was giving him, his confusion slowly morphed into realization. He looked up at Gus, confusion now morphed into horror. He took a step back, nearly stumbling over the mess on the floor. Gus sighed, cracked his knuckles, and smiled at Jacob.
"Oh my god. You're-"
Before he could finish his sentence Gus walked up to him and shoved him onto the couch as Jacob was paralyzed with shock. Jacob quickly snapped out of it and went to try and stand back up and fight but Gus drew a spell circle and tied him up, securing him to the couch and preventing him from doing anything. As Jacob struggled against the magical restraints, Gus just chuckled slightly.
"And I'm just going to take this," he said, casually walking over and reaching for the magic detector, "Yoink!"
Jacob grumbled and continued to struggle as Gus turned the machine off and carefully put it in his bag.
"Foul devilish being! You can't do this to me!" Jacob yelled.
"Actually, I can." Gus said, sitting back on the couch across from Jacob, "I am within my jurisdiction to confiscate any invention, witch or human made, that could benefit the Boiling Isles or both realms in technology, research, or maintaining of transport or relations."
"You lied to me! Acting like some US government worker to trick me!"
"I never said what government I work for. It's not like this country has a government and everyone else just lives in anarchy or something. By the way, your timeline and information on witches needs some revisions. Not as many as I assumed it would but, news flash, witches aren't dumb, ruthless savages. Magic has helped us surpass human tech. We just don't come here often because portals are hard to make and we don't need much that this realm has to offer."
"Then why are you here? To mock me?"
"I already said what I do. I'm here because you're the most accurate conspiracy theorist, and one of the smartest, and you have tech that could be helpful. Also I do keep tabs on you to make sure you don't actually convince people that witches and demons exist. I've only just now approached you because I didn't know your address, also I wanted to be cautious. Us witches may be peaceful but you humans have a habit of, how to put this, colonization and immediately using all your discoveries to make weapons."
"Who even are you? Is this some disguise to hide your disgusting true form?" Jacob said, glaring at Gus.
"Okay, wow, rude. You could have asked nicer. But fine, I'll show you."
Gus took out his earrings with concealment stones embedded in them, making his ears turn from round and human looking to their normal pointy form.
"Gus Porter, maintainer of Human Realm-Demon Realm relations. Pleased to formally meet you Mr. Jacob Hopkins."
"You said you were delayed by not knowing my address. But how did you get it?"
"You aren't completely off the grid, everyone in Gravesfield knows who you are, and you also are a bit of a creep. It wasn't that hard. I just have to talk to a few people and bam! I find your address. I just didn't feel like asking until now. I have humans who help me. Most don't know I'm a witch, but one does. And no I'm not telling you who they are."
"The second I get out of these restraints I'm going to-"
"You're going to what?" Gus interrupted, leaning forward, "Try to attack me? Look pal, I'm an illusionist. And a powerful one. And you see this magnifying glass earring? It's a magic amplifier. I can dig through your memories and force you to relive all the embarrassing moments of your life. I can expose all your secrets. I can frame you for anything. I could ruin you in just a few minutes. You're a fairly smart college dropout obsessed with witches. But me? I'm a powerful illusionist with no reason not to do anything I wanted to you as payback for the harmful lies your spread, your awful behavior, and that one time you captured and threatened to dissect an innocent demon. Yeah, I know about that. I'm friends with her. So before you start making threats you can't deliver on, ask yourself. Is the person you're threatening worth getting on the bad side of? Because trust me pal, that's a position you do not want to find yourself in."
Gus was maintaining fierce eye contact with Jacob, looking like he was staring into his very soul. For once Jacob was silent and terrified of the witch in front of him. Rambling about how dangerous witches were was one thing, but actually having one in front of him was something else entirely that shook him to his very core.
After a few moments of staring, Gus just sighed with a smile and leaned back casually.
"But I can't do that, legally speaking." He shrugged, "Yeah I can't harm anyone, humans included, without authorization or in serious danger. And harm includes both physical and psychological. So unless you become an actual threat, which I doubt you'll ever be, I can't do anything. Just don't harm any witch or demon, because if you do the action can and will be reciprocated. Okay?"
Jacob just nodded, still terrified of Gus, even more so with his sudden tone shift. Gus grabbed his bag, stood up, and walked over to the wall with the information on witches Jacob had shown him. He pulled out one of the portal disks and his map marking portal use history. He looked around the maps, grumbling to himself about how he needed to work out some kinks because there were spots marked with portal activity even when there would be no way there and there was no portal registered to the uses. Just some in a park, the greenhouse, at the head, and at some random spot in the middle of the ocean on the other side of the world from the Boiling Isles. He'd have to check that out eventually but in the moment he decided it might be fun to pay one of his old friends a visit, for fun and as a distance test.
He looked at the trail of small portals going through the ocean and found a small island around where the most recent one was, which should be close enough since the portal was opened within the last 12 hours. Gus typed in the coordinates, used the eyedropper to put a drop of Titan's blood on the disk, then tossed it onto the wall. As the door opened it destroyed all the papers that were in the way, which made Jacob let out a gasp of shock and disdain.
"Yeah…that's gonna leave a dent in your work. Thankfully, now that you've had this enlightening experience, you can fix your work! Oh! And just one more thing."
Gus drew a spell circle and Jacob's computer setup, as well as the security cameras, crashed before shorting out completely and breaking, which made Jacob's horror only grow.
"Just a little handicap. Don't think I'll be back here for a while to check on you, so I gotta make sure you don't get up to much while I'm gone. Thanks for the magic detector, but I'm going to take my leave."
"Wait! What about me! You're just going to leave me in these magical binds!" Jacob yelled as Gus took a step through the portal.
"Oh, yeah, that'd be messed up. Let me fix that."
Gus drew another spell circle and the magical constraints turned into regular rope.
"I'm sure you can figure a way out of those. Leaving for real now. Byeee!"
Gus walked through the portal and it collapsed behind him soon after.
"I really gotta work on that." Gus mumbled to himself, glancing at the dusty remains of the portal.
Gus looked around the island he stood on, seeing nothing much. The sun was nearing the horizon so it was around early evening, but was still decently bright. The island was just a decently sized patch of land with a hunk of bone in the middle, what looked like a toe. Nearby he could see the other toes of whatever Titan body he was standing on, though all of them were separated by water, and the water between each of them and around all of them went deep, with barely any taper from the coast to the deep trenches in the waters. Gus got closer to the shore and looked around in the distance, trying to see if he could spot any ships. Thankfully, he did see one and assumed it was the ship he was hoping for. He made an illusion of a massive flashing sign, trying to get the attention of the boat. As an added measure, he also created a megaphone.
"Hey! Ship over there! Think you could lend me a ride?" He yelled into the megaphone.
Unfortunately, he didn't see any attempt from the ship to change direction or sign that it noticed him. Even more unfortunately when Gus gave up and went to dig another portal disk from his bag to just go home, he saw he was fresh out because he didn't pack enough, and also that he left his portal door and key at home. Most unfortunate was when he saw the waters in the distance start to shift and what looked like a massive demon starting to surface and began to go towards him. Gus couldn't identify what it was, but with the speed it was coming there was no way it was good.
It got closer and more out of the water, enough that its back was exposed. This allowed Gus to see that it looked like a massive water snake with sharp spines and a massive fin. When it got close enough, its head finally left the water, revealing its terrifying appearance. It had the head of a dragon that tapered to a point and a long, scaly body. Its fins were the size of human cars and its tail fin the size of a large sail. Its eyes were large and its pupils were long and thin. As it opened its mouth slightly, Gus could see massive, sharp teeth surrounding its long, forked tongue. It stayed in its place and looked around, then it caught the sight of all of Gus' illusions and growled. Gus saw what it was looking at and dropped the illusions, but it was too late. Its tail swept through the water and lifted out of the water to strike Gus. He was paralyzed with fear as the unfamiliar demon lifted the tail high. He could only drop to the ground and close his eyes tight in panic as the tail hurdled towards him, ready to crush him. Gus couldn't even focus on trying to make a shield spell and instead just braced for impact.
But, that impact never came.
Gus nervously opened his eyes and saw the tail of the beast just a few feet above him and encased in ice, unmoving. The demon tried to move it again, making the ice start to crack, so Gus took the chance to move far out of the way and away from the shore. His attention on the demon was stopped when he heard in the distance what sounded like cheering.
Gus looked into the distance and saw a cloaked figure moving towards him, a trail of ice behind them and forming in front of them as they slid down the path they made. As they got closer they could see the person approaching had their hands and arms aglow with symbols that looked similar to glyphs, but with different designs. They eventually reached the shore and stood in the water where the land met the boiling sea, somehow unphased by the waters. The ice encasing the demon's tail finally broke and the momentum from the strike was still there and went to slam down on the person, but they simply stuck out a hand and a shield made up of the symbols surrounded them and the demon's tail simply bounced off. The demon looked confused and moved its tail behind it again as it looked at the person, leaning its head down to inspect them. When it got close, it breathed out on the person, blowing off their hood with the gust of air.
The person had long horns made of bone, with most of their head also being made of bone. The tip of one of their horns was discolored slightly. They had long fangs and the lower half of their face was fluffy black fur.
"King?" Gus gasped.
Not paying any attention to Gus, King reached up and pet the massive demon's snout, making it growl in a way that sounded almost like a purr.
"What's wrong, girl? What's got you so riled up?" King asked the demon.
It growled and huffed, which made King nod in understanding.
"Oh I bet he didn't mean to disturb your nap. He was probably just trying to get my attention."
It glared and made a strange clicking noise.
"Not everyone is immune to the waters. And his staff is probably at home. The only way he could get my attention was by making his illusions."
It huffed again and King chuckled.
"If he apologized, would you not eat him?"
It paused, then made the clicking noise again as it slowly blinked at King.
King turned to face Gus, who was confused and terrified, especially at knowing that the massive demon wanted to eat him. King, however, did not seem phased by this and just waved Gus over. Slowly and somewhat reluctantly Gus came over and stood to King's side, just enough behind him so that he wouldn't be standing in the water. When he looked up at King, he just nodded towards the demon.
"I'm, uh, so sorry for disturbing you. It won't happen again." Gus awkwardly apologized.
"See? He's sorry." King said to the demon, patting its snout, "Now how about you go back to the seafloor and enjoy your nap, okay?"
The demon purred and nodded then turned around and dove underwater again. Gus just looked at King in stunned silence as King just smiled at him.
"Gus!" King said cheerfully, "It's so great to see you. It's been a while. Let's go back to my ship so we can catch up."
King started to walk further into the water, paused, turned back to Gus and walked back, coming fully onto shore.
"Right. You can't withstand the boiling sea." King said awkwardly, reminding himself after having not interacted with anyone from the Isles in person in around 2 years, "Here, just hold my cloak for a sec."
King took off his cloak, revealing to Gus that he had replaced his collar with a necklace with the symbol that kept him invisible from the Collector on it and was also wearing a bad girl coven tank top, though it was more likely a t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off. Gus held the cloak and King stretched his arms then, shocking and amazing him, stretched out a pair of large, boney wings, translucent cartilage connecting all the bones and filling the gaps between them. Gus also took that moment of awe to fully take in just how tall King had grown, currently towering over him.
"Lilith was right about Titans growing exponentially." Gus said.
"Oh, yeah. I've also gotten way more powerful. I have a whole new language of glyphs! And I can just…summon them at will! Well, you probably saw that." King said with an awkward chuckle, "Anywho, just hop on my back and we can get back to my ship."
King turned around and crouched down so Gus could get on his back easier. Gus hesitated, but did climb on King's back. He tied the cloak around the necklace then gently grabbed hold of the scruff of King's neck, not wanting to hurt him.
"You'll need to hold tighter than that. Don't worry, you won't hurt me. Also if you don't have a good grip, you'll get hurt when you fall off my back and into the boiling sea."
With that, Gus tightened his grip. As King said, it didn't hurt at all. With Gus secure, King fully extended his wings, knelt down even further, wiggled slightly, then shot up into the air with a single flap of his wings. Gus screamed as he shot into the air much faster than expected, which made King laugh. Once King got high in the sky and leveled out, just gently flapping his wings Gus relaxed quickly, though not completely. Flying on a staff was one thing, but riding on the back of the literal Titan who was just a few years younger than him was something else entirely. They flew over to the ship fairly quickly and, even though he wanted to dive down at top speed, King slowly lowered onto the ship and let Gus off. King untied the cloak as Gus settled himself. They were flying for less than a minute but it was still a strange and somewhat scary experience. Gus sat on the deck of the ship and King, after tossing his cloak off to the side, did too.
"So, what's up?" King casually asked, "Why did you decide to visit?"
"I guess I just thought I might as well. It also worked as a range test for my new compact portals. Problem is, I didn't pack enough and couldn't go back home. But now I know that there seems to be no distance limit between realms! Just need to test to see if in the same realm there's a distance limit. How about you? What was with that demon? It didn't look like anything I've seen before. Do the other Titans create different species when they die?"
"Yeah, but that wasn't from any of them. The demon is called a leviathan and…I may or may not have made it by accident. My wings have been growing just as fast as I have. And, well, as they grow they do this weird mix of molting like a bird and shedding like a snake. I didn't think much of it but apparently it counted as the flesh of a Titan. I was writing a letter to Eda and, well, one paper cut on my palm later followed by dumping my wing's first shedding in the ocean because I didn't want to mess up the furnace and…"
"You create a whole new species of demon." Gus said, completing King's sentence.
There was an awkward pause in conversation. They both had thought that after 2 years they'd have more to say, but nothing came to mind and they just sat there until Gus eventually came up with something to talk about.
"You're really close to being halfway done with your trip." Gus said, "Your journey of discovery going well?"
"Yeah, I've found a lot. I've got the most accurate map of the world so far in progress." King said, though there was an almost sad twinge to his voice.
"But you were hoping to find something that you haven't yet. Or rather someone." Gus said softly, seeing the reason why King had spoken with the tone he did.
"I know she's gone but a small part of me doesn't believe it. I just keep imagining that she didn't die in the shipwreck and made her way to another island or was picked up by people who lived on another island." King admitted, "I know it's crazy but I just can't bring myself to accept the truth. I even catch myself thinking I hear or see the Collector in the shadows."
There was another pause, this one significantly more awkward than the last. But it made sense that King didn't want to believe Luz was gone. She was like a big sister to him. She cared for him, played with him, joked with him, and even saved his life a few times. And it made sense that he thought he saw or heard the Collector since they captured him and they were connected for a while thanks to the ritual the Titan Trappers did.
"You've probably had a long day. You should head back and get some sleep." King said, slowly standing up.
"What about you?"
"I'm only a few hours away from the next Titan. I can take a nap then get some shelter when I go there."
"Alright, but there's also the fact that I can't get back. I could text someone and see if they could open their portal for me but it's only like, 5 am back at the Isles if I remember the time zones correctly."
"Well I can still make portals. Being a Titan and all." King shrugged.
"But won't that be too big? You normally only make ones big enough to send letters though."
"I can do it, it'll just take a lot out of me. But in a day I'll be recovered. Soon I'll be strong enough that I won't need that much magic to make a portal to the other side of the world, but for now I can do it and just take it easy for a while after. Maybe by that point I'll be able to actually make portals between realms."
Gus nodded and smiled at King encouragingly, and King smiled back. He then stuck a single claw out, hand glowing with glyphs. As he moved it slowly down through the air, it was as if his claw had pierced through the air as it opened up a portal to the Boiling Isles. King dragged his finger down close to the ground, the perfect size for Gus to walk through. King moved his hand back, looking exhausted and panting slightly. Gus looked a bit concerned for him but King just gave him a thumbs up. Gus waved goodbye and stepped through the portal and back to the Boiling Isles, where he could see the sun just barely poking out over the horizon as he stood in the middle of town.
King waved goodbye back and then shut the portal. He took a look into the distance and saw what looked like the ankle of the Titan he was approaching just barely sticking out of the water. Winded from all the magic that making the portal took, King went down below deck to his quarters and settled into bed to take a quick nap. When he woke up he'd be able to explore a whole new island and discover whole new things.
Things that he could only hope he'd be ready to find.
