The Insignificant Portals

"Don't tell me-?" I asked, and then gulped down once. "We're going in there?"

Norc and Heather looked down at me with surprise, then disbelief, and then with plain and undisguised humor. My cheeks blushed with embarrassment.

"We're... not?" I mumbled.

Norc fought to keep his laughter in while Heather knelt in front of me with a grin. She placed a gentle, yet coarse hand on my shoulder, as though I was a child she had to console, which only made me more embarrassed. She said, "No, sweetie. We'll leave that to the mighty soldiers of the Empire, yes?"

I glared at her. "I'm not a child excited about these sort of things. I was only assuming-"

She nodded swiftly, her grin faded out. However, I could still notice how her eyes twinkled with joy.

'Calm down, Eleftheria,' I thought to myself. 'They will only treat you like a child, because to most other people, you really are.'

That indeed made my blushing cheeks return to its normal state, and I had to fight the urge to glare openly at my companions.

After a while of silence, wherein the two teenagers somehow found it in themselves to look away from me and whistle at the wind (Heather still kneeling), I finally cleared my throat for their attention. "If it is not to enter said portal, then what might the distinguished mare be doing here?"

Heather turned her body back to face me, all too energetically, and replied just as animatedly. "We've been called here for back up!"

When she didn't continue on, I looked over to Norc. He smiled with a shrug, saying, "It's nothing but a formality. Mare Desiderii has always played an active part in the affairs of the Aerim Continent. Most of the higher nobles and founders of great organizations came from this mare, after all. So, whenever something as interesting as this occurs, the Mare couldn't possibly be out of the loop, yes?"

I gulped down. "You mean we were invited merely to... spectate?"

Heather clapped her hands, stood up from where she knelt, and brushed down the dust from her dress. She winked at me, saying, "You're a quick one."

I shook my head. "But then my earlier statement wouldn't be all bogus, either."

She froze and then tilted her head at me.

I explained, "Even if this is all a formality, it does not change the fact that we are here as reinforcements on paper. Hence, it was not altogether otherworldly for me to ask whether we would be going inside the portal or not."

Norc snorted and slapped me on the back twice. He grinned at me and faced Heather. "More than just a bit quick, if I should say so myself."

Heather shrugged good-naturedly. Then, giving me a curtsy, she offered, "Apologies for the undue response to your perfectly valid question. It was wrong for my motherly senses to consider you a child, when you are all but."

Although successfully placated, I still found it too much. "It's fine, Heather. Regardless of all things, I am still indeed lacking of experience."

She smiled easily. "Allow me to help you with that then."

Norc spluttered noisily, holding his hand up. "W-What kind of experience are you talkin' about again?"

She smiled freshly at us both. "Life... experience?"

I giggled quietly, and decided to veer the topic back into place. I inched forward and grabbed at Heather's gloved hands. Trying my best to smile as cutely as possible, I asked, "Then, who is inside the portal now?"

She went back to acting energetically again, her mouth opened wide to give me a reply, but then shouts came from the other side of the clearing.

"We connected!"

"Come 'ere erryone! The orb works!"

Without time to even think about what might be happening, I felt my feet leave the ground, and when I looked up in shock, I saw Norc's back, my view of the world distorted...

Somehow, in less than a second, he had grabbed hold of me and had me dangled down his back. When I looked around the upside-down world in calmness, I noticed how he was carrying me across the clearing, through bodies of complaining students, and-

We stopped, and I formed a soft ball of fire around my palm... and held it nonchalantly towards the teenager's exposed calves.

After a sharp yelp, he released my knees, and for a short while, I held myself up by my hands, doing a precarious handstand. With expert grace I had formed in the months I spent in the Order, I righted myself into a firm standing stance.

Ignoring the whoops and barks of laughter around us, I came up to Norc and slapped him twice on the back. Grinning, I said, "Not too worry. That won't leave a scar."

He pouted at me as he massaged his calf. "You didun have to do that, ya know?"

"And now you know you don't have to go carrying me up your shoulder in the next time you somehow feel the need to, yes?"

He laughed hollowly. "Yes, yes, your highness."

Nevertheless, I was glad about his actions. He had brought us at the front and center of the spectacle. There was an orb as large as a troll's head, held up in the bare air by some flotation magic. On it was an eerie image.

"Is that... ?" I muttered, clearly in shock.

I felt someone come up behind us, but I already recognized her because of her distinct, rose flower scent. Heather replied to my incomplete question, "An imaging orb. That's how we view events from inside the Test of Waning, and we used the same technology here."

I've only heard of imaging orbs in legends and books. To actually see one in person...

It was a device made out of complex light magic, formed from the rarest materials found around the world. The process of how images are formed is already quite difficult for me to comprehend, so I never thought I would see one of these rarities in my life.

Through the orb, I saw a glimpse of trees, viewed through an angle that made one think it was a bird, flying through the sky. On the other side of the orb, I can see Tora and the professor speaking in hushed whispers, their sights trained on either the orb or on one of the students in the clearing. It was the melancholy-looking boy. The one dressed in pure black, with eyes dragged low by bags of exhaustion.

"Umm... Narco, is it?" I asked quietly towards my companions as I stared at the thinly crouching boy, his eyes tinkering with a weird contraption in his bony hands.

The pink-haired teenager nodded. "See that thing he's holding? It's what controls the primary imaging orb we sent inside the portal. From that orb, we can see the images it sends back to our own orb right here."

"Really quite ingenious..." I murmured. "And to conduct such active light magic, maintaining clear images while the primary orb is moving so swiftly..."

Norc nodded. "Yep, Narco might be one with the darkness with his dreary clothes and demeanor, but he's actually rather adept in using light magic."

'Just like Hestia...'

"Anyway," Heather told us. "Look quick at the orb. I believe we'll be seeing some action soon enough."

She was right. Maybe it was motherly instinct or so, but in the next few seconds, the orb finally caught onto some changes on the ground. The clearing hushed down from its previously excited atmosphere, and heads leaned forward to see the images on the orb.

I gasped softly as I caught sight of a morbid color.

"Is that blood?" I heard one of the students ask, which brought on a veil of tension throughout the clearing. I felt, rather than saw, how it was not only tension nor apprehension that grew stronger, but also excitement and anticipation.

I thought, 'If need be, we would have to be sent inside to offer our help to the soldiers, right?'

That made me feel worried and anxious. No matter how much stronger I was when compared to Sinus Fidei, I knew how lacking I truly was when compared to other well-trained soldiers. I wouldn't really know how I would hold up in a head-on fight with... whatever caused such a bloodbath.

"Narco, bring the orb down and closer," Tora commanded.

When I looked at the other boy, I saw how he was filled with sweat, his dark and bloodshot eyes almost crossing over from concentration...

"Just... Just a moment, Tora," Narco managed to utter as he slowly brought the orb lower. As it went down, the image through the viewing orb grew clearer, the scene of the aftermath of battle growing bigger.

A collective sigh went through the group.

I asked Heather in a hurry, "What is it?"

"The situation isn't as bad as we thought. Most of the blood probably came from the monsters," she explained softly at my ears. "Can you see the difference in color?"

Indeed, it was very vague, but the blood came off as a brighter red than normal human blood. I nodded once to thank the girl and directed my eyes back to the orb.

For a while, we only saw more patches of previous battles here and there. As the orb went deeper through the forest, though, there was a clear change in the atmosphere. Even as a simple image, I could almost imagine the drop in temperature as the world suddenly became darker and foggier. The ground turned more rocky, and soon, lesser trees covered our sights of the ground.

The longer it went on, the quieter the clearing became.

However, while the scenes of battle became more spread apart, there was conspicuously more sightings of darker red blood, and at one point, we even saw a body. All around me, students cursed and blessed the poor man's soul.

"But where are the monsters?" I asked.

"The enemies?" Norc muttered, deep in thought. "Might not be visible, or 'haps all of 'em managed to retreat with their dead... Frankly, as of now, we can only guess. The soldiers haven't sent for help, though, so I'm assuming we're on the winnin' end."

Although I wished there would be better scenes to see, for a good three hours, we only got to witness a single actual battle. Norc was indeed telling the truth. The soldiers may have had some casualties, but they had it under control. He was wrong though in assuming that the opponents were invisible or that they brought their dead with them in retreat...

Although the primary orb tried its best to float as low as it could, it wasn't able to give very clear visuals. At most, we can make out larger-than-human beasts, three legged, and with four upper limbs that whipped around like talon-sharp tentacles. What made them even more fearsome was what they did with their dead. When one of them fell, the creatures closest to it would pounce on it and gorge it all up, not even leaving any bone or flesh behind...

"Gross," Heather groaned, although it was more of a statement than a complaint.

Norc sneered. "Now we know why we haven't seen any monsters 'til now. They're all up in the bellies of their kin."

These monsters were dark as ink, and in the world of shadows, they had the upper hand.

Well, at least that was the case for the first few minutes. The moment the fighter mages that specialized in light magic finished their incantation, the world inside the orb suddenly became as bright as day. The creatures, at home in the darkness, became only extremely clear targets on the bright and rocky plain.

What came afterwards was a massacre. Coordinated blasts of magic came out from the attacking soldiers, which opened the way for battle mages who specialized in body and weapon enhancement. While those in the front lines held back and dealt hard damage on the confused creatures, the farthest mages from the scene continuously blasted supporting spells, either to dull the enemies or buff up the allies.

"Amazing..." I murmured in awe.

Heather nodded slowly. "There's a reason why the Empire is the Empire, you know?"

That made me purse my lips, a feeling of embarrassment filling my heart. The Kingdom of Saule did indeed have a strong army, and I've always felt nothing but pride in them. But now, when compared to such a disciplined force... I can't help but wonder what made the Kingdom such a powerhouse to even think of battling against the Empire.

I shook my head, clearing away such thoughts.

It didn't matter to me now, anyway, right? I was a simple commoner, and thoughts like this will only bring me down.

The next moment, a combination of shouts of cheers and groans filled the clearing. It seemed like the battle had ended. Although it was barely visible through the orb, it seems like the army of soldiers had finished what they had come for. While most of the Mare rejoiced at the success of the party, the others felt it a pity that they couldn't join in in the fun.

Heather was laughing when she enveloped me with her arm. "Fun, wasn't it?"

I shrugged. "I don't know if that's the right term to refer to such violence."

"Bah!" She said as she rolled her eyes. "The soldiers had it under control. It's rather like we only watched an exciting play."

"A play wherein real people might die and have died?"

She sighed, and promptly released me from her hold. "Come now. At least tell me you are excited at the prospect of us winning against such blatant and violent magics?"

I frowned. "Are you referring to the phenomenon of this vastly appearing portals?"

"What else?" she asked. "Little much is known about why they've appeared. This is the first time where actual sightings of the insides of the portals have been recorded. As of today, we now know that our foes can be dealt with."

Inside my mind though, I held a different thought. I didn't think these sudden appearances of mysterious portals would amount to much trouble. If they were such a great issue, I would have remembered of them in my past life. I could only assume that this problem would be solved very quickly and with much ease, enough so that future history books won't even deem it significant enough to be included in their pages.

So, I wasn't as excited as Heather, who looked around her as though she was a witness to the changing of history itself.

She found me looking at her, and she frowned, her joyous mood dampening down. "You really don't care much about this, don't you?"

I giggled. "Let's just say I have a gut feeling it isn't as life-changing as you think it is."

She rolled her eyes, although she still smiled, and then grabbed my hand. "Come with me then. Let's dismantle this god awful shield of logs before the army comes through it."

For the rest of the day, the mare and I busied ourselves with revealing the portal by removing the hastily made barricade they created around it. By the time the sun had set, the army of soldiers had made their way through the portal gate, and into our clearing. It seemed like Tora and the professor had made some preparations for their arrival, because soon after, the clearing was filled with emergency tables and supplies.

In the glint of the setting sun, I saw a inconspicuous ring on Tora's pinky finger. When he felt my stare on him, he only winked at me.

No matter how much I wanted to stay and help tend to the soldiers, though, Heather and Norc (who seemed more and more like my assigned guardians) led me back to the telly and brought me back to Castle Desiderii. Clearly, my special day with the Mare was brought to an early close.